


Poisoned Fury

by Sleep_Deprived37



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Blood and Injury, Crash Landing, Explosions, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Gen, Hurt Shiro (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, Keith & Shiro (Voltron) are Siblings, Keith (Voltron)-centric, Pidge | Katie Holt-centric, Poisoning, Protective Keith (Voltron), Shiro (Voltron) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Shiro (Voltron)-centric, Violence, Wilderness Survival
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:22:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 30,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23550745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sleep_Deprived37/pseuds/Sleep_Deprived37
Summary: Pidge, Shiro, and Keith went on a mission to gather more Intel on how Sendak got a hold of the Red Lion.It ended as well as you'd expect.::NOW WITH ART!!! :DD::
Relationships: Hunk & Lance (Voltron), Keith & Pidge | Katie Holt & Shiro
Comments: 43
Kudos: 77





	1. Lexion

**Author's Note:**

> And the whump begins!! I have plenty of other ideas too, but I'm DEFINITLY writting more whump. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy!! Tell me how I'm doing so far! :)

Careful silent steps echoed through the Galran ship as three paladins in red, black, and green gracefully sneaked their way to the control room.

"Shiro, I _really_ don't like this..." Keith whispered, as he watched Shiro peer out to make sure they were clear to move forward.

Bashing the heads of any sentries they saw was a bad idea, it can trigger alarms. Normally that won't be a problem.

But this wasn't just any regular old Galran cruiser, it was _Sendak's_.

Seeing as though he took the Castle with nothing but five damaged sentries, a crystal, and an assistant, they didn't want to take chances.

Keith was already worrying for Shiro, he was ok after they found him and Lance, but he wasn't in the best of shape.

From what Keith was guessing, Shiro's battle with Sendak hadn't been easy, and painless.

He also guessed they might have met during Shiro's time in captivity. Which didn't help his nervousness.

"I know, I don't either, but we need to figure out how Sendak got your Lion." Shiro whispered back, not breaking his concentration.

"This is really dangerous too, if one of us gets injured, we have to wait till I can fly us back to the Castle, and remember how far away it is?" Pidge joined in, keeping her voice low but stern.

As a safety precaution, the Castle was far away and out of reach due to the last battle they came off of.

The last battle damaged the sheilding systems, and going up against Sendak like _that_? That wouldn't have been easy at all. Why do more damage?

Coran, Allura, Lance, and Hunk were back there to try and fix it as fast as they can. 

Hunk's ETA was about a couple of quintents.

And that was not good.

"Don't worry, we can do it." Shiro responded, voice filled with confidence.

Keith and Pidge noticed Shiro started tapping his index finger against the wall. They weren't sure if it was a councious decision or not. But the sound of his metal finger against metal wasn't all comforting.

Suddenly Shiro whirled his head around to face the two, gaze determined.

"Lets go, but fast!" Shiro whispered, he then dashed out from behind the spot where they had been hiding.

They weren't far from the control room, but it would take a while to get there.

They had barely made it into the next hiding spot when the next patrol of sentries walked by.

Shiro moved back further to be hidden from view, Pidge and Keith copied his movements from their positions behind him.

As soon as the group of sentires past, without warning, Shiro grabbed onto Keith, and Pidge's wrists and dashed further down the hall.

Pidge bit down on a yelp of surprise as she and Keith did their best to keep up with Shiro.

Once in the next hiding place, they were right by the control room. Pidge blinked in surprise as she noticed Shiro didn't look at his map once.

"Shiro, how did you-" Pidge started.

"Lets just say I know my way around places." Shiro looked back to Pidge and Keith and gave a smirk.

"How do we get in the control roo-"

"Shh!" Shiro didn't mean that in a mean way as he leaned forward to listen to something.

Pidge and Keith were confused at first until they heard Sendak laugh.

"Clearly they're _idiots_!" Sendak barked.

Watching Shiro carefully, Keith noticed something changed in his expression, he scrambled back as fast as he could ducking down infront of Keith and Pidge.

Sendak passed them, and thanfully didn't turn down the hallway they were hiding in.

Apparently he had a new assistant beside him. He was taller than Shiro, but shorter than Sendak, only by a couple of inches.

He whore the same uniform as Haxus did, but he looked entirely different.

This Galra had fluffy ears, and a much bulkier body than Haxus. He had a huge scar across his entire face, as if he were slashed with a sword.

"Of course they're idiots!" 

That comment made Sendak laugh harder and stop right in the middle of the hallway.

Shiro started to panic, if Sendak turned around and saw them...that would most definitly be a big problem right now.

But as Shiro continued to watch carefully, something was off about both Sendak and his assistant's tone and expression.

That only made Shiro's stomach sink farther.

"Ah, thanks for that laugh Lexion, but off to the prison cells for some **_fun_**." Sendak's wild grin and comment made Shiro flinch.

The two continued to move down the hall and Shiro visibly relaxed a bit.

He peeked his head out from behind the wall once there was no sound, he truned back to Keith and Pidge and gave a warm smile with a thumbs up.

They cautiously approached the doors to the control room as Pidge worked her way past the lock of the door.

At the sound of a _click_ , Shiro and Keith both turned around to see Pidge was successful in opening the door.

With out hesitation, Shiro dashed in and took out the measly three sentries with ease.

Pidge imediatly went to the main console and hooked up her guatlet to begin downloading data.

Shiro positiond himself alongside Keith at the door, just in case something went wrong.

"Hey Shiro, you ok?" Keith asked, looking over to Shiro with concern on his face, still clutching his bayard.

"Yeah...? I'm fine... Why do you ask?" Shiro turned to look at Keith not deactivating, or letting down his Galran arm. Confusion written all over his face.

Shiro hadn't been injured or anything...

"Oh, you just seemed at bit tense."

"Aren't we all?" Shiro smiled.

Keith opened his mouth to answer when Pidge let out a gasp.

Shiro and Keith imediatly turned around, but only to see Pidge smiling.

Keith let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding in a long, relived sigh.

"What did you find, Pidge?" Shiro asked.

"I've got access to the cameras! Even though thats not helpful right now...but I also have blueprints to the weird second canon on this ship." Pidge explained as she carefully pulled up the blueprints on the screen.

That would be another reason why they went to this ship specifically, it was because of it's odd second cannon.

They didn't know wether it was another ion cannon or not, but it had the same shape.

"Pidge that's great!" Shiro beamed, not leaving his position by the door.

"Is there any difference to that cannon compared to the ion cannon?" Keith asked, still clutching his bayard like something will jump out at them.

Pidge paused, looking back to the blueprints, her curious eyes tracing over every little detail, making sure to not miss a single thing.

She always had an eye for detail, and if Matt taught her anything, it would be ' _don't miss a single detail_.'

Although Matt played around often, making jokes, and bad puns, he was smart.

He also taught her to think outside of the box, which was always helpful.

"Hmmm....Aha! I see it now!" Pidge exclaimed, not picking up her head.

"What is it?" Shiro questiond. Knowing the Galra, it wasn't anything good, even if Pidge was amased by it.

"It's way more complex then a normal ion cannon, which of no doubt, makes it **_WAAAY_** stronger than normal!" 

"That's not good..." Shiro trailed off.

Of course the Galra would upgrade their weapons! Shiro is honestly surprised at himself for not knowing this.

Shiro suddenly felt a wave of a bad feeling wash over him. When he gets gut feelings that ' _something is wrong_ '? 

You better listen...

"What do we do?" Keith asked, a hint of worry in his voice.

Shiro thought Keith must've picked up on that feeling too.

"We could blow it up, we bought explosives." Pidge shrugged. 

Shiro thought for a minute. They could blow it up, but they might not get the chance... It would be safer to plant the explosives in the control room.

They've done this before, nothing to worry about!

Then there was Sendak, that didn't make this easier at all in fact, it made it ten times harder.

Getting onto this ship, and sneaking into the control room was hard enough, they needed a plan.

"What's the ETA on the download, Pidge?" 

"Umm..." At Shiro's question, she turned back around to watch her computer.

"About... 5 more doboshes." Pidge answered, turning back around to face Shiro and Keith.

"Ok, we'll position the explosives in here, and if I'm correct it should set of a chain reaction throughout the ship." Shiro explained thoughtfully.

"So, once we reach Green, we'll activate the bombs, right?" Pidge clarified.

"Yes."

* * *

" _No_!!!" Hunk shouted in frustration.

"Don't worry buddy, we'll get it!" Lance sighed, but he put a comforting hand on Hunk's shoulder.

They had been at this for _hours_. 

And yet, still no fix to the Castle's sheilding system.

Whatever they were hit with in the last battle, it affected one of the power crystals, making it go from glowing a pretty orange, to purple, with electricity sparking from it.

They safely removed the crystal without anyone getting hurt.

The crystal's color reminded Hunk of when the Castle was corrupted by Sendak's evil, Galran crystal.

_Evil food..._

He shuddered at the thought.

Hunk and Coran have been trying to work around it, without needing another crystal.

Allura and Lance unfortunately, didn't have much experience in engineering, Hunk, Pidge, and Coran were the best technicians on the ship.

"Lance, we don't have time to wait!" Hunk gently countered, turning to face Lance.

"Why not? The Galra aren't attacking us." Lance shrugged, removing his hand from Hunk's shoulder.

"Actually, Number 3, Numbers 1, 4, and 5 are on Sendak's cruiser." Coran pointed out, holding up his index finger.

Lance froze in realization for a moment.

"Exactlly, we do **_not_** have any time to waste once so ever." Allura commented, arms crossed from her position to the left side of Lance.

The Bridge wasn't always this tense...

"Ok, but did Shiro, Keith, and Pidge **_have_** to go?!" Lance shouted, face full of concern, and both arms raised above his head.

"I'm sorry, but yes. We don't know what Sendak has on his ship, they could maybe find us something to replace the crystal." Allura said thoutfully, her expression softening.

"We can still try to work around it though." Hunk offered.

Coran sighed.

"I'm dearly sorry, Number 2, but it seems like this won't work." Coran explained.

Hunk sighed too.

"Is there any way we can contact them at least? To make sure they're ok?" Hunk asked, now fiddling with his fingers nervously.

"Yes! We can do that!" Allura beamed.

"Just a quick check in, to see how things are doing!" Coran smiled, twisting the ends of his mustache.

Hunk moved over, and stepping into Hunk's original spot, Coran made a hailing frequency, to contact the other paladins.

They knew they would be ok, but that's no reason not to worry.

Sendak was _dangerous_.

So was his ship.

Hunk knew checking in with his friends would make him feel better, well...not _just_ him, Allura, Coran, and Lance.

They didn't even try to hide their worry, if Shiro, Keith, and Pidge's cover was blown, the Castle was too far away to help.

But even so, they would all be lost if the Castle was destroyed.

Can't afford that now, can we?

Hunk's thoughts went **_WILD_** with worry.

_What if Keith was too arrogant and charged first before listening to Shiro? Wait, arrogance is a Lance thing..._

_What if Pidge was shot down while downloading the intel, or something?! She can't pilot Green back here while she's unconscious!_

_Oh gosh...and Shiro...OH GOSH, WHAT IF HE HAS A FLASHBACK?! HE CAN'T DEFEND HIMSELF!! HE'LL JUST FREEZE, GET HURT, AND TAKEN AWAY!!!_

_Oh gosh...If that happens...they could take Shiro BACK TO THE ARENA, AND HAVE KEITH AND PIDGE THERE WITH HIM, OHHHHHHH GOSH!!_

_THIS IS BAD, THIS IS REALLY-_

_"_ HUNK!!!" Lance shouted as he shook his friend's shoulders, with all his might.

"Huh?!" Hunk snapped out of his panicked thoughts and stared back at Lance.

"Look!" Lance smiled and he pointed to a screen that showed Pidge's face.

"Pidge!! Wait, where's-" 

" _Don't worry, they're here, and safe. Shiro and Keith are setting bombs."_ Pidge smirked.

"What? Why?" Lance asked.

 _"Because the second cannon Sendak has is really powerful, if we_ set _bombs in the control room, this entire ship blows up."_ Shiro came into view, also smirking. 

"Shiro!!" Hunk called.

" _Hey."_ Shiro gave a warm smile towards him, and Hunk visibly relaxed.

" _Whats the ETA on the Castle's sheild?_ " Pidge asked.

"Sorry Number 5, we haven't gotten anywhere just yet, I'm afraid we're stuck." Coran answered, a frown clear on his face even if his mustache blocked it from view. 

Pidge frowned and so did Shiro. Shiro suddenly looked away from the camera, got up, and moved out of veiw.

"Hey, where's Mister Hot-head?" Lance asked, hands on his hips, with one eyebrow raised in question.

" _Oh, he's over there_." Pidge said, turning the projection to face Keith, who was pointing to a certain part on the ceiling. Shiro was at his side.

They were some-what far away from Pidge.

" _-think you can reach? That's a good spot to plant a bomb, and I know you have crazy wall climbing skills."_ Keith asked, turning to face Shiro, handing him an explosive.

_"Yeah, I can reach."_

" _How- you know what, just go for it."_ Keith took a couple steps back to give Shiro some space.

"Wait, why not use the jetpacks?" Hunk asked, tilting his head to the side.

 _"Too much noise."_ Pidge responded, she was behind the camera, but judging by her tone she was still frowning.

"Oh." 

Shiro took a couple steps back as well, but went farther back than Keith did.

Explosive in hand, Shiro sprinted forward with as much speed as possible, the ceilings in the ship were not easy to reach, but he could do it.

Shiro then somehow ran up the wall, and backflipped as he placed the bomb on the ceiling, in the **_exact_** spot Keith was referring too.

He landed perfectly on his feet.

Hunk never really paid attention when Shiro climbed walls, or pulled off crazy stunts during battle.

He was amased, and judging by Allura, and Coran's faces, they were too.

" _Pidge, download?"_ Shiro asked turning around.

" _Uh...Oh! It's done in, 3...2...1, done!"_

" _Good_." Shiro walked closer to the projection off Pidge's guatlet, with a determined look on his face.

" _Sorry guys, we have to go._ "

"Ok,we will check in on you again soon, so be ready." Coran explained, waving a goodbye.

" _Ok._ " Shiro nodded.

Coran shut off the monitor, then turned to look at Allura, Hunk, and Lance.

"Let's get back to work, shall we?" Coran clapped his hands twice, with a friendly smile on his face.

* * *

"Alright, we have to get moving. We have the intel, and the bombs in place. Ready?" Shiro clarified.

"Yeah, lets get moving." Pidge answered.

"Keith?" Shiro looked over to Keith, who had concern written all over his face.

"Shiro...something feels _wrong_..." Keith said, picking his gaze from his feet to look up to Shiro, with crossed arms.

Shiro couldn't help but mentally agree.

Sendak had a lot more tricks up his sleeves since the Castle incident, who knows what he has planned for that cannon.

Worry flooded into his head threatening to drown him. He pushed back the powerful wave, and stood confidently.

"I feel it too, but let's focus on getting out of here for now, ok buddy?" Shiro responded, sympathy coding his voice as a soft smile appeared onto his lips.

"Ok." Keith gave a small smile in return.

That's all Shiro wanted.

Shiro led the way to the door, cautiously opening it, and peeking his head down the hall. Once sure they were clear to move, he gestured for Pidge, and Keith to follow, and stick close.

The three swiftly moved down the hall towards the hanger, where they originally planned their escape.

It was very risky to land the Green Lion _inside_ the ship, but they couldn't leave it floating in space while Sendak's ship moved.

It took a while to get there without being undetected.It was working, until they were spotted by an unexpected group of sentries.

Instinct pulled over Shiro when the group of 7 sentries raised their guns.

He activated his Galran arm dashing forward.

Pidge and Keith also activated their bayards jumping into battle to help both their leader, and friend.

Pidge took the liberty of slicing through two sentries at once by wrapping her bayard around them, and tugging, causing them to be sliced in half.

Keith used his sword to rush the sentries. They had no time to react when Keith let out a yell of anger, and sliced right down the middle of one, and turned to his left, slicing across the others chest.

He glanced over to Shiro, who sweep the feet of one, slicing the head off of another, and punched straight into the heart of the one still fallen.

The last one...came up behind Pidge without her noticing.

Keith threw his bayard, straight into it's head, causing it to collapse.

Pidge looked behind her, and let out a breath of relief, she then took Keith's bayard out of the discarded sentry, and tossed it to him after it deactivated in her hands.

"Thanks." Pidge smiled.

Her only response was a smile, then alarms flashing a violent red, and an unsettling sound of loud sirens echoing through the halls.

"That's our cue to go!" Shiro called out, gesturing for them to start running.

They followed their fearless leader through the halls, and to the gigantic hanger doors, finding that they were being followed by a group of sentries.

As they got into the hanger, Shiro went back to fend of the sentries aiming for the backs of his teammates. 

"Shiro! What are you-" Keith yelled, turning to look at Shiro, who went from leading them, to behind them.

"Don't worry, can't afford you two getting shot, so get to Green, I'll catch up!" Shiro yelled back to him as he activated his arm, charging the sentries.

The first one he encountered tried to punch him, but he ducked and weaved around getting it at it's back.

Keith watched and felt the need not to listen to Shiro, but he went with Pidge to the Green Lion as it was now visible.

Keith kept glancing back to Shiro, and he had about 2 sentries left, which was nothing compared to the 9 he had to deal with before.

Shiro punched a dent into a sentries head, and it fell to the floor in an instant.

One got behind him, and tried to shoot Shiro with it's gun. 

He turned around slicling the guns muzzle off, and punched the sentry in it's chest, sending it sprawling onto the floor.

Another figure came through the doors from behind Shiro, but it wasn't a sentry.

To Keith's horror, it was Sendak's assistant, _Lexion_.

Keith and Pidge were already by the barrier of the Green Lion, as she sat silently, and patiently for Pidge to step inside.

Shiro hadn't seen Lexion, which gave him the advantage for an attack.

Lexion's vicious smile had too many pointy teeth as he bought up his leg to Shiro's head, aiming to stun him.

"SHIRO!! BEHIND YO-"

Keith's warning came out too late.

Shiro whirled around, only to find he took a _direct_ hit to his face. He grunted in pain as he hit the ground hard.

Shiro blinked rapidly trying to clear his vision of the black spots creeping into his line of sight. Then without warning he was shoved onto his feet, both his arms behind his back as someone's arm wrapped around his chest to secure him in place.

His hazy vision finally cleared, only to find a knife to his throat, covered in a purple liquid, dripping off the tip of the blade.

Alarmed, he struggled to break his captor's grip on him, but that only drew the knife closer.

"Now, now _Champion_... This knife has poison on it...not so nice, is it."

Shiro froze in place when he heard his name.

"Your coming with me, I'm sure Sendak misses your screams of pain." Lexion gave a dark chuckle that made Shiro flinch.

"Let him go!" 

Shiro glanced out, his unseeing eyes, seeing two figures standing a distance away, in red and green.

"How about...no, red paladin." Lexion slurred, a hint of amusment in his voice.

Shiro's mind screamed for him to get out, and **run** as he realized from earilier, they _were_ spotted in that hallway. Not by Sendak, but by Lexion.

He started planning as soon as he saw more sentries flood in, charging at Keith and Pidge.

He vaguely thought it was stupid that Lexion had a knife, and not a gun. But he was grateful for that.

Shiro used that to his advantage as he shifted slightly allowing his foot an angle to trip Lexion.

This was a bad idea, but he needed to help his friends, it was his job to protect them.

Wether he ended up injured or worse.

Shiro prepared, as he knew the knife will cut him, it was too close to his neck.

He planted his leg, and sweep it under Lexion's, causing him to fall backwards. In order to not go down with him, Shiro surged forward, grunting as the knife cut through his flight suit, and into his neck, producing blood.

Shiro kneeled down clutching his neck with his human hand, before pushing off his feet towards his friends who needed assistance.

He got there lightning fast, ignoring how his neck throbed with pain as he let go.

Dashing forward, he took down a sentry about to get the jump on Keith.

Startled, Keith whirled around to see Shiro.

"Shiro! How did- are you..."

"I'm fine, right now we focus getting out of here, we can worry about me later." Shiro felt like he just ran a marathon, he was panting heavily already.

Thankfully, it didn't take too long for them to finish off the sentries and escape, Keith noticed how Lexion ran back into the hanger with Sendak, fury and rage written on their faces as they watched the Green Lion take off.

Keith hung close to Pidge's chair griping onto it as they took off, flying out into space, as they dodged beams of light, coming from Sendak's ship.

**_THUD_ **

Keith looked behind him and Pidge, and gasped.

Terror the only emotion adapting onto his face, as he rushed over to the fallen figure. 

"Keith? What happened? Is Shiro ok?" Pidge asked, frantic as she worried at Keith's gasp.

"Shiro collapsed..." Keith breathed, looking at the cut on Shiro's neck, with a mixture of blood and purple poison, he only worried more as he removed his helmet, earning a groan.

Pidge gave a gasp of her own, as she looked back to see Shiro lying on the floor, unmoving.

Looking back was her biggest mistake.

Something impacted with the Green Lion, causing it to shake.

Soon, they were left in darkness as all of Green's systems, and their armour shut off conpletely.

"PIDGE!" Keith yelled, gathering Shiro into his arms, clutching him tightly.

"WE WERE HIT WITH THAT SECOND CANNON!! ALL OF GREEN'S SYSTEMS ARE DOWN!!" She yelled back.

"UHHH....KEITH!!" 

"WHAT?!"

"WE'RE GOING DOWN TOWARDS A PLANET!! IT'S GRAVITY IS DRAWING US IN!!"

Keith realized they were gonna crash _... **hard**_.

"PIDGE, COME OVER HERE, QUICK!"

Without hesitation, she dashed over, and Keith used his other arm to pull her in, using his body as a sheild.

"HOLD ON!" Keith yelled, clutching onto Shiro, and Pidge as if they were a lifeline.

**_CRASH_ **


	2. Begin The Journey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They've crashed.
> 
> They woke up.
> 
> On an unknown planet with new threats awaiting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the kudos!!!
> 
> Hope you like this chapter, it doesn't have as much action as the later chapters will, but here it is! 
> 
> Sorry it took so long!

Keith woke to ringing in his ears, which never ended well from what he's learnd.

He bought up his hand to his head as he groaned, pulling off his helmet. He slowly sat up, looking over himself, and thankfully finding himself uninjured, but sore all over.

Keith took a moment to recall what happened.

_Oooooook...Sendak's ship, explosives, blah, blah, blah, blast from the second cannon, crashing, Pidge and Shiro-_

_**SHOOT**!!!_

He jumped to his feet, looking around the dark cockpit, searching for his brother, and friend.

Somehow he ended up on the right side of Pidge's pilot chair.

It was so dark, he couldn't see, nor could he get the nighvision on his visor to work. Keith's guatlet had a flashlight in it... That didn't work either.

 _Greeeeeeat_...

He bit his bottom lip, reaching for the pilot's chair, walking infront of it steadily, making sure he didn't trip and fall, breaking his head open.

That would be _very_ unfortunate.

Keith moved as carefully as possible, until he stepped on something _soft_...?

He looked down and squinted, trying to make out what it was, but it was still way to dark to see a single thing.

He shrugged to himself and stepped down on it one more time, but he got a groan in response.

Keith stared wide-eyed for a moment.

_Oh my gosh, did I just step on Shiro?_

_"..._ wha _?"_

Pidge.

"Pidge! You ok?" Keith asked, taking off her helmet. Took him a couple tries though... He placed his hands on her shoulders to be sure she knew where he was.

"Y-yeah...just sore all over. What happened? And why is it so dark?" 

Keith could kinda see her hair move, meaning she was looking around. Or _trying_ to.

"The crash remember?" Keith clarified.

"Oh! OH!! We got in here after- Shoot, where's Shiro?" Pidge asked, voice frantic.

Keith was guessing she remembered the part where he almost had a heart attack when Shiro collapsed. He was injured too.

"I ran into you first. Ok, how about you try to get the Green Lion to work, while I find Shiro." Keith explained.

There was a beat of silence for a second.

"Pidge?"

"Oh, I nodded, guess you can't see." 

Keith chuckled a bit despite himself, and the situation they were in. He then felt Pidge hold onto his shoulders, and push off. 

He stood as well after Pidge was sitting in her chair. Keith noticed it took her a couple of times before gripping onto the controls.

Keith used the pilot's chair to guide himself behind it, thinking he could get a better view of the very dark cockpit before him.

He _tripped_ over something.

He gave a grunt of pain as he hit the floor, his already sore body hurting as he moved.

"Keith?! You ok?!" Pidge called, hoping Keith didn't just collapse as well. She doubted she can handle this on her own right now.

"Yeah! I just tripped over-..." Keith stopped and felt for what he tripped over.

_A leg!_

He crawled over to where he was sure Shiro's head was.

"Did you find Shiro?"

"Yeah, I found him." Keith responded, feeling through Shiro's hair, hoping he would wake up.

If only he could see him...

_Aha!_

"Hey, Pidge? Can you do me a favor?"

"Yeah, what's up?"

"The escape hatch."

"What...?"

"No, open the escape hatch, it's literally right above you, remember? We need light in here." Keith explained, neither of them liked this situation.

Hopefully they were able to contact the others for help, and get the Green Lion up and running again.

Not to mention Shiro was injured, and he must've collapsed due to the poison.

Cause Keith knew Shiro can take a cut to the neck, they could easily wrap it up, simple temporary fix. But when the cut has been _poisoned_? That's a different story.

"Ooooh! Ok, I'll open it." Pidge climbed ontop of her chair to reach, and pulled it open.

Keith shrunched his eyes closed for minute, so his eyes could get used to the light after being in the dark for so long.

Pidge did the same as she sat back in her seat, reopening her eyes.

Keith reopened his eyes as well to look down to Shiro, who's face was scrunched up.

"Shiro? You with me?" Keith asked.

Pidge seemed to catch on to what Keith was saying, and got up and moved next to Keith. She gasped at Shiro's neck, because the blood and the poison was visible. He looked a bit pale as well.

"...hm?" Shiro slowly cracked his eyes open to glance at Keith and Pidge, brows furrowed.

The two standing over their leader gave a sigh of relief.

"You ok?" Keith helped Shiro sit up, with his back against Pidge's chair.

Shiro took a deep breath to answer, but it came out in dry, coughs. 

"Y-yeah...you guy s'ok?" Shiro asked.

"Just a bit sore, nothing to worry about." Pidge responded, getting up to go through the Green Lion's compartments that stored things like, a first-aid kit, and water.

"Wha' happened?" Shiro slurred, voice raspy and hoarse. No one could blame him for that right now, he wasn't in any condition to even talk properly.

"Well...you kinda collapsed, right before we were hit by Sendak's second cannon, and Green went down for the count. She's not working." Keith explained.

"Where are w-we?" Shiro brought his hand up to touch his neck, but was stopped by Keith, who gently grabbed his wrist.

"We don't know, we haven't left the lion yet. And please try to refrain from touching your neck for now, ok?" Keith said, face full of concern as he let go of Shiro's wrist.

"Ok."

"Aha! Found it!!" Pidge called, as she bought over a first-aid kit, with a canister of water.

Pidge handed the first-aid kit to Keith, and handed the canister of water over to Shiro, who sounded like he definitly needed it.

Keith took the first-aid kit and opened it.

His only goal right now was to help Shiro first, or at least wrap his neck up to avoid infection.

He dug through the kit and found some bandages, which should help keep Shiro's neck from bleeding even more.

But he had a problem...

The _poison_.

If Keith covered Shiro's neck to stop the bleeding, the poison would be trapped, and most likely try to kill Shiro as it was supposed to do.

He also didn't have any sense of time, either.

Which means, the poison might have started taking effect already. Keith honestly had no clue of what to do now.

He could wrap Shiro's neck to stop the bleeding, but risk the poison getting trapped, or _not_ , wrap Shiro's neck and risk blood lost.

Keith shrunched his face up in frustration.

"K-keith? You ok, bud?" 

He looked up to see Shiro looking at him with worry in his face, but there was visible pain in his eyes, that hit Keith like a truck.

"Yeah, just thinking of what I can do about your neck. I can't wrap it with the poison there, so I have no clue of what to do." Keith explained, to himself it sounded more like,

_'Shiro your injured, and I can't do a single thing about it!'_

"Try clearing some of the blood and poison, I'd take a sample of it to see how toxic it is, but I don't have my equipment." 

Keith turned to look at Pidge, who was hovering over his shoulder, holding the water canister.

"That's...not a bad idea." 

Pidge gave him a smile, and Keith looked back to Shiro.

"This might hurt...sorry." Keith said, picking up a white cloth.

"It's f-fine."

* * *

"UUUUUUGGH!!!! WE'VE TRIED EVERYTHING!!" Hunk yelled in fustration, throwing his arms above his head.

This was completely out of his element, but he was definitely not taking this anymore.

"I know, Number 2. But there seems like we may have failed this time." Coran said, patting Hunk's shoulder with a sympathetic look on his face.

Lance felt bad about seeing his best friend like this. He felt like it was now his job to make Hunk feel better. Suddenly, it came to him, he knew **_exactly_** how to make him the happy, and kind Hunk again.

"Hey! Why don't we check on Shiro, Pidge, and Keith?" Lance suggested, with a beaming smile on his face.

Hunk turned to face his friend, and smiled.

"Yeah, let's do that." 

Coran got to work on contacting their friends who they were worried for.

Hunk watched as Coran's brows furrowed in fustration, and he felt a sinking feeling in his stomach.

Coran's face went from fustrated to pure horror in a matter of seconds.

"Coran...?" Hunk asked cautiously, unsure if he was ready for the answer.

Based on the horror on Coran's face, he knew it wasn't good. Hunk wanted to believe it was something as little as getting delayed.

"I can't reach them...the Green Lion is..." Coran started, turning to face Lance, Allura, and Hunk, shaking his head.

"The Green Lion is, what?" Allura asked, neither of their faces looked calm, it was all terror, especially when Coran answered with this.

"The Green Lion is down...we have no clue where they are..."

"Oh my gosh..." Hunk imediatly said, holding his own hands infront of him, shaking his head, trying to fight back tears as they built behind eyes.

"What do we do?" Lance asked, frantic.

"I have no clue..." Coran trailed off, looking down to his feet.

"We can't just sit here, we must find them!" Allura said confidently.

"How? Green's down!" Lance countered, throwing his arms in the air.

"Yes, I am aware of that. I was implying that I can locate them myself, as I do to track you all in the Castle." Allura eplained, arms folding infront of her.

"That...might work." Lance agreed.

Allura had many special abilities, and one of them was magic. Not only is she able to locate the Lions, but she can also find anyone in the Castle.

Her abilities allow her to find anyone within her range, she can feel, or sense their quintessence.

But that's the problem.

They are far away from where Keith, Pidge, and Shiro were last.

"Wait, doesn't your magic, like I don't know, have like a range or something?" Hunk pointed out, raising his index finger.

"Yes, but I'm sure you and Coran can build something close to an amplifier, am I not wrong?" Allura asked, head tilted to the side in questiond.

"No, Coran and I can do it right Coran?" Hunk turned to face Coran, hope filling his eyes, in replace of the tears that were threatening to leave, and trail down his face.

"Yes, of course my boy!" Coran threw a smile at him, and slung his arm around Hunk's shoulder.

"Then let's get to it, and save our friends." Hunk announced, with a determined smile on his face.

He wasn't about to give up, not now...

Not ever.

* * *

After removing some of the poison and blood from Shiro's neck, he looked like he was fine. Although, he wasn't. His flight suit was still jaggedly cut at his neck.

Pidge and Keith weren't able to wrap his neck, and there was still blood flowing out. The poison was still visible, it already entered his system.

Which only made things worse.

Thankfully when they exited through the Green Lion's escape hatch, it was a forest before them.

They had been pretty lucky when Green crashed. She crashed, making a crater and clearing some of the odd colorded trees, but was covered by some of them.

"At least we don't have to worry about not having water." Pidge shrugged, assuming there was water on this planet when it had plants.

"Yeah, that's good at least." Keith said, from his position to Shiro's right side.

Keith was a little...close.

He didn't want Shiro to break his face if he collapsed again. He kept a close eye on him as well, just incase.

"Then let's get moving." Shiro announced, already taking his lead again.

They started to walk into the brightly colored forest.

The bark of the very tall trees were purple, and the so called leaves were orange. The ground was blue, and it honestly was a sight for sore eyes.

It was...pretty in a way.

They stuck close to eachother, not knowing what kind of wildlife this planet supported, from Shiro and Keith's past experience, they assumed it was dangerous, and took no chances.

Pidge noticed Shiro was looking around, head whiping at any sound. His eyes were a little unfocused.

 _'It must be the poison...'_ Pidge thought.

Shiro was normally very vigilant, and always had his guard up, but his eyes...that wasn't normal.

"Shiro? You doing ok?" Keith asked. Pidge thought he must have caught on to.

Shiro's head turned to face Keith, a little too fast...

"Yeah, I'm good." Shiro's smile looked... _off_. A little crazed, even.

"You sure? Your eyes look a bit unfocused..." Keith's face hadn't changed from concern, as he looked over his brother.

Shiro _laughed_.

"Yes I'm sure! No need to worry, buddy!" Shiro patted Keith on his shoulder.

Keith's stomach fell.

 _'Whatever this poison is doing to him, it's **bad**...' _Keith thought to himself.

Shiro looked away again, still too fast, as his smile dropped.

Keith looked to Pidge, meeting her eyes, worry the only emotion visible on their faces. An unspoken question was answered, as Pidge looked up.

The sun was going down.

 _'We need shelter, we don't know what kind of creatures life here.'_ Pidge thought, biting her lip.

She looked around for anything they could use, maybe a cave somewhere?

"Hey! A mountain!" Keith shouted as if on cue, pointing to a tall mountain to his right.

Pidge looked to where he pointed.

"Ha! Your right! These trees are way to tall for us to have seen that! Good eye Keith!" Pidge beamed a happy smile at him.

"Thanks! Now let's get there before the sun goes down completely." Keith lead the way through the trees, and they thankfully didn't run into anything on there way.

Keith kept glancing over to Shiro, who's eyes, and actions hadn't changed from eairlier.

He wished they could have done something more to help his brother, other than clean some of the blood and poison off his neck.

Keith wearily watched the blood continuing to flow from Shiro's neck, and the bits of poison still there.

He could only hope they can get back to the Castle in time, and not run into any trouble out here. Although it was highly probable at this point.

All of them had been through so much already, taking out the Galra, forming alliences, dealing with injuries.

Keith could list dozens of things at this point.

Once they reached the mountain, he stared up at it. In comparison to the trees, it wasn't that big.

"Wow..." 

"Yeah, wow is right...Hey! Over there!" Pidge exclaimed, pointing to what looked like a cave.

"Lets just hope nothing lives in there." Keith warned.

Keith looked to Shiro, who was still frantically looking around, he didn't wanna believe it, but Shiro's eyes were more unfocused then before.

"Shiro?"

"Hm?" Shiro looked to Keith, speedily turning his head with a slight smile.

"We're going to check that cave out, ok? You stay here and- you know what, Pidge, can you watch him for me?" Keith turned to Pidge, and waited for her response.

Pidge nodded with a smile.

"Don't worry, I got this!" 

Keith nodded back, and tried to summon his bayard, only to find it didn't work.

"Suits are off, remember?" Pidge reminded him.

He groaned and pulled out his Mamoran Blade, and transformed it. Carefully approaching the cave.

Keith noticed that Pidge lead Shiro to sit against the rocky surface of the mountain.

He reached the entrance, and it was dark. Entering, he held his knife tightly above his chest, ready if something attacked him.

Keith reached the end of the cave, and found that nothing was in here, it was just... A _cave_.

Despite the weird colors, and crashing on an unknown planet, the mountain and cave seemed pretty Earth-looking.

It still wasn't changing the fact that it was dark though.

The cave seemed pretty safe, if something _did_ live here, hopefully it wouldn't be back for the next couple of days or so.

Or, however long they were stuck on this planet.

Keith walked out, and made his way back to Shiro and Pidge.

"Hey Pidge, the cave is safe." Keith called out.

"Oh, good." Pidge stood up from her position next to Shiro, and sprinted to meet him halfway.

"How is Shiro doing?" Keith asked concerned, as he glanced over Pidge's head to Shiro, who was staring off into the now dark forest as if he's seen a ghost.

"Not better, but not worse. He's just...staring now." Pidge said, face worried.

Keith noticed the clear panic in her eyes. He couldn't blame her, this wasn't exactly the best spot to be in with no communications, a dead Green Lion, no working armour, and a poisoned Shiro.

This was _bad_.

"Ok..." Keith trailed off sighing, turning his gaze back to Pidge. "Let's get Shiro in the cave, and we need a fire. Can you go get us some firewood?"

Pidge nodded, and went to go collect some twigs and sticks.

Without her bayard, this was much harder to do. She didn't go far, she was still in Keith's range of sight.

Keith went over to Shiro, kneeling infront of him.

Shiro's left hand was shaking a bit, but still clutching onto his helmet.

"Shiro?" Keith asked carefully. He went to place a hand on his brother's shoulder, but hesitated in fear he might jump.

Shiro's eyes darted to him, his eyes had carried a thousand different meanings, that Keith couldn't read.

"Uh...can you walk? Or-"

"Yes." Shiro suddenly stood up, not leaving Keith's eyes.

He stood as well.

Keith put a cautious hand on Shiro's back as he led him towards the cave's entrance. He looked back to see Pidge walking over with her arms full of purple twigs, and sticks.

They got into the cave, as Pidge caught up them.

She placed the twigs and sticks that she collected in what she assumed was the center of the cave.

Keith got Shiro to sit against the back wall of the cave, as he sat next to him.

Outside, the forest looked horrifying in the dark. Keith was grateful when Pidge managed to start the fire up.

"Alrighty, there's that." Pidge dusted off her hands as she made her way over to where Keith and Shiro were sitting.

She sat down next to Shiro on his other side as she leaned into him.

Keith did the same as he rested his head onto of Shiro's shoulder.

"Let's get some rest, ok?" Keith asked.

"Ok." Pidge yawned and closed her eyes.

"Shiro?" 

_No answer_

Panicked, Keith looked up to Shiro's face to find his eyes were closed, but his breathing was a bit too fast.

Keith put his head back on Shiro's right shoulder, and started to think.

_'I'm not letting Shiro live past this once we get back to the Castle.'_

"He won't leave you again, Keith..." Keith muttered to himself. He believed his own words, as they slid off his tounge. 

Even if he hated this situation, he found that his eyes grew heavy, and heavier. Until he closed his eyes and sighed.

His breathing evened out, as he fell into an uneasy, but very much needed sleep.

And _dreamt,_ about his worst fears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tunned for the next chapter! 👍👍
> 
> Feel free to leave comments on how I'm doing so far!


	3. Minor Set-back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things at the Castle are looking a bit better, but on Keith, Pidge, and Shiro's side, they've run into another problem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has a lot more action in it, enjoy!!

_He panted, legs sore from running, gasping for air as it gets harder to breath, but he kept going...he needs to find him._

_No matter what._

_Miles from his destination, panic flooded into his mind as he kept running forward, as fast as his legs can carry him._

_He can hear his own hard steps against the barren rocky ground, and the veiw of a cloudy sky not assisting him in any way._

_He finds black spots start to grey the corners of his eyes, as his vision grows hazy with every step he takes._

_But he pushes back._

_He can't give up, he needs to find his brother, in hopes that it isn't too late when he reaches him._

_Almost there, he must reach there, he can't stop, he can't wait, he has to keep going even if it gets harder to breath and see._

_He can't loose him again, he can't!_

_It'd be all his fault...he can't let that happen, and he won't._

_The spots overtake him, as he stumbles forward, falling, hitting the rocky surface of the ground before him._

_His vision returns as the spots disappear, and although his breath is still labored, he attempts to stand, only finding himself fall over again._

_Legs too weak and sore, his body begging him to stop, and rest. But he can't stop going, he has to reach his brother._

_He climbs to his feet again, fighting back the urge to pass out, and ignoring all of his body's protests in him continuing on._

_He doesn't walk, but runs._

_Destination finally in sight, the sky visibly grows darker, as it begins to rain down on the planet made of nothing but rock, not supporting any life at all._

_He doesn't stop, but runs faster when he sees a figure laying on their side, back to him. But from where he was, he could tell they weren't moving._

_Only one name left his mouth, screaming it, as he continued to sprint, faster, and faster, towards the figure._

_'' **SHIRO!!** '_

_He continued yelling, at the top of his lungs, though they were already strained._

_His pants, harsh, and painful in his throat. His legs shake beneath him, threatening to stop working, but he's almost there._

_He reaches and kneels down infront of the figure of whom he claimed was his brother._

_The figure's face is so cold, and pale, with blood running down the side of their mouth, and blood flowing from his temple._

_He touches the side of the figure's neck, searching, for anything that might symbol they're alive, and that maybe, he still had a chance._

_No pulse..._

_No breath..._

_Extremely pale..._

_Cold to the touch..._

_He felt his vision cloud again, but not with black spots, but with hot, painful tears._

_He sobbed, as the tears flood out of his face, and onto the figure's own face. His tears would not stop, as he held his brother tighly._

_Mumbling that "this was all his fault.'_

_"How did this happen...?" He mumbles._

_"Don't leave me again...please..."_

_His sobbing and mumbleing didn't stop, as he continued to cry, wishing he got here sooner, why couldn't he have ran faster?_

_Why couldn't he have been closer?_

_Why did this happen?_

_Why not himself instead?_

_"Not him...anybody but Shiro..."_

_All of his crying, and wishes didn't do anything. He wanted to scream, and shout at the nearest person, blaiming them._

_Even if he knew he was responsible for not reaching his brother in time._

_All he could do was cry, and recall his memories of the happy times. He couldn't do a single thing to help him._

_It was-_

_"_ Keith _"_

_He stopped, that wasn't supposed to be in his dream._

_Wait._

_Dream...?_

_"_ Keith!! _"_

_Who was calling him? He was supposed to be alone..._

_"_ KEITH, WAKE UP!! NOW! _"_

He felt a pain in the side of his face, only to find Pidge slapped him.

 _Ow_.

 _'It was all a dream...'_ He thought. Keith took a deep breath to steady himself after seeing his worst nightmare. It almost felt _real_...

 _Too_ real.

"Hey Pidge what's-" 

"SHIRO'S GONE!!!" Pidge yelled in his face, nothing but panic and worry in her eyes and expression.

Keith's eyes widened.

"Shoot."

* * *

"Alrighty, there you are!" Coran dusted his gloves off, and placed his hands on his hips looking pleased with himself.

"Haha! It looks good!" Hunk cheered, pulling his goggles to his forehead.

They were on the Bridge, and before them was what they had to the amplifier so far. It looked like a weird box, with the color of silver.

Coran and Hunk origanelly wanted to use the Teleduv as a base, but Allura wouldn't let them. They figured it would be easier for Allura to transfer her magic to get it to work instead of physically going _in_ the box.

But you can't have all of the luxury, wether it was a Castle or not.

"Well then, shall we take a minor break, my boy?" Coran asked, turning to look at Hunk with a friendly smile.

"Umm...wouldn't Allura be like, mad for us taking a break?" Hunk started to fiddle with his fingers in a nervous gesture.

"No, we've clearly worked hard. How about some of Lance's milkshakes?"

"Ok, then. That does sound pretty good." Hunk smiled, putting his hands down at his side.

"Then let's go!" Coran led the way out the Bridge, leaving his gloves behind.

Hunk followed, while leaving his goggles. Things were getting better, they'll surely find Shiro, Keith, and Pidge.

No worries at all.

They reached the training deck, and heard the noises of a fight. Opening the doors, to see Allura and Lance to freeze.

Allura had a foot on Lance's back pinning him to the floor, and Lance had a pleading look in his eyes, that read, ' _HELP ME, HUNK_.'

"What are you doing here?" Allura demanded, not moving her foot from Lance's back.

"Oh um, we were wondering if Lance can make milkshakes. We figured we should take a break cause-"

"A break?" Allura inturrpted Hunk, as she removed her foot.

She didn't look mad, but she sure sounded like she was. Until she threw a beaming smile at them.

"I'm ok with that, besides that I am rather tired from assuring my victory and dominance over Lance." Allura smiled, gesturing to Lance, as he stood.

"Let's make some milkshakes!" Lance exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air after dusting his cloths off.

He vaugly thought that it was a bad idea to go up against Allura without his armour. He was pretty sore, but it was nothing major. Just some bruises.

Thank _goodness_.

They headed out of the training deck, and some questions had went unanswered.

"Hey, any word on Shiro, Keith, and Pidge?" Lance whispered, leaning in to reach Hunk's ear.

Hunk sighed, and frowned, looking down at his feet as the two continued forward down the hallway.

"No, not yet."

"Don't worry man, your not the only one who's worried for them." Lance said, giving a sad smile as Hunk picked up his gaze from his feet to look at his friend.

"I know." Hunk returned the same smile.

"Well anyways, how is the good ol' amplifier goin'?" Lance asked, as he slung his arm over Hunk's shoulder.

"It's going good, maybe just a few more things to add, and we'll be done." Hunk chimed.

"See? Nothing to worry about, Pidge and Keith have Shiro! Shiro the hero! They'll be fine! They also have me, once we reach them too." Lance pointed to himself and smirked.

Hunk chuckled.

"Yup! Now, where are those milkshakes?!"

* * *

Keith felt the panic rise inside of him, looking everywhere for clues to lead to Shiro, and the possible scenario he was going to be in.

The possiblities were _endless_ at this point.

Keith hoped he hadn't just collapsed somewhere, because he was shouting his name.

"SHIRO!!" 

He definitly got a weird sense of deja-vu, it shouldn't worry him, but it did remind him of his terrifying dream.

They had been searching around the area for a while now, and still no sign of Shiro.

Keith was guessing Shiro wandered into the forest, which wasn't good at all. He could be anywhere at this point!

With no sense of time, they had no clue how long they've been asleep, and possibly how long Shiro's been gone.

So Pidge and Keith began searching the forest, keeping a straight path to not loose the cave. They needed to play this smart.

"Keith, do you see him anywhere?" Pidge asked, from her position behind him.

"No..." 

Keith could hear his own panic in his voice, even if he didn't want to sound terrified.

Pidge put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, she knew how it felt to loose someone you love, wether they're family or not. 

Boy, did she miss Matt, and her dad, and obviously missed her mom, but was sure she would be grounded once they got back to Earth.

Going back to Earth, sounded like a fantasy. It sounded fake, like it was never going to happen, or even be as little as a possibility.

But she kept her hopes up, and so did the rest of the team.

"Shiro...?" 

Pidge noticed Keith sounded confused, so she imediatly picked up her head from her feet, to look infront of them.

Shiro was there.

But, he was standing back faced to Keith and Pidge, until he turned around suddenly.

"Oh, hey." Shiro said with a smile, although it was dark, Keith and Pidge could still see his unfocused eyes. It was way worse than before.

"Umm...why did you leave the cave?" Keith asked, not moving any closer.

Shiro didn't answer he just stood there with a smile on his face for a couple of seconds, until it dropped down into a frown.

Something seemed to change in his eyes, as they refocused a bit, he looked utterly confused now.

"Keith? What- what are we doing in a forest...?" 

Keith glanced at Pidge, who was staring wide-eyed at him. This wasn't good, he hoped they just put Shiro in a Cryo-pod, and everything would be better.

Keith heard a choked sound, alarmed, he turned to look back at Shiro.

Who was being _strangled_ by something dark purple, and spikes on it. The source, was what looked like a purple monkey, but with fangs, and big ears that looked cat-like.

The spiked tail was wrapped around Shiro's neck. 

Keith gasped and got out his Mamoran Blade, transformed it and dashed forward. He was stopped when another one of the creatures jumped out infront of him, earning a yelp of surprise.

Keith lashed out at it, it was small, and fast, which didn't help Keith in hitting it.

Pidge was having her own fight with one, it had it's tail wrapped around her left ankle, she had rocks in her arms, hitting the creature.

She managed a solid hit to it's head, and was able to shake it off her foot.

Keith caught the creature off guard when it was looking to it's friend, the one Pidge attacked, and slashed down on one of it's ears.

Now catching his breath, Keith noticed Shiro's Galran arm lit up as he clutched onto the tail, trying to burn it.

_But it didn't release him._

With a roar of anger, Keith lashed out at the spiked tail, slicing it off, earning a screech of pain from the creature. It fell of the branch it was on, and onto the floor, un-moving.

Shiro's eyes rolled to the back off his head, as he fell forward.

"Shiro!"

Keith caught him just before he hit the ground. But Shiro's neck was covered in blood now, multiple cuts, and punctures from the spikes on the creatures tail.

Keith slung Shiro's arm around his shoulder, and winced at the pained sound he made, as Pidge was already at the other side.

Shiro's ragged breaths were very alarming, and not the nicest thing to hear.

Though Keith did take most of Shiro's weight due to Pidge's size, she was strong but, she couldn't carry Shiro by herself.

They headed back towards the cave, in silence for a while, until a question came.

"Pidge, you ok?" Keith asked, keeping his eyes forward.

"Hm? Oh, yeah. I'm ok." Pidge responded, keeping her tone neutral, maybe hiding her panic wasn't the best thing to do, but you can't have two paladins panicking.

She had noticed Keith's panicked voice a couple of times, and she understood how protective he was over Shiro.

Pidge wondered what it was like back at the garrison for the two. She knew they had a brotherly relationship, but when did it start?

And, when did they meet?

This was a conversation for later though, right now she needed to focus on the task at hand.

"How's your ankle?"

"It's fine. How 'bout you? I know your really worried for Shiro, I am too. But, this seems to hurt you more than me." Pidge gestured to Shiro's neck, and the amount of blood coming from it, was very unsettling.

"...Oh. Uh- yeah, I am pretty protective over him, but then again he is my brother, and seems to have the worst luck in the world." Keith responded, his tone sounded neutral, but Pidge bet that if she could see his eyes, fear would be very clear in them.

Keith wasn't open at all, if he was going to open up to anyone, it would most definitly be Shiro.

Shiro never gave up on him, even when everyone else did. He saw hope, and potential in Keith.

They reached the cave in silence.

Pidge's stomach growled, meaning it was definitely time to eat something. She was guessing Keith was hungry too.

She looked over to Keith, and saw him taking out another disinfectant white cloth, hesitantly hovering over Shiro's neck.

Pidge got out the ration bars, and walked over to hand one to Keith, although he looked pretty busy.

The ration bars were green, and mushy, pretty gross, but they needed food. Even if it tasted like the food goo.

Keith didn't look up, but he did take it from her hand, and shove it in his mouth so he could continue working.

Pidge hovered over Keith, as he removed more of the blood from Shiro's neck.

Keith wished they weren't in this situation. Or the very least, not have Shiro be poisoned and injured.

He visibly flinched, and bit his lip whenever Shiro would make pained sounds. Although it was barely audible, Keiht felt like there was huge speakers playing it in his ears, to torture him.

He absolutely _HATED_ seeing Shiro hurt, he looked so vulnerable.

It took him minutes, but it felt like it took him hours to finish clearing the blood.

Shiro's neck was a _mess_.

It was covered in different cuts, and punctures where the spikes on the creatures tail was, and it was still bleeding a steady pace.

As much as Keith wanted to wrap Shiro's neck, he still can't. The poison was in his system, and their best bet was to let him bleed it out.

That was _horrifying_.

First bit of luck they had, thankfully the cuts, and punctures didn't hit anything vital. That was a close call.

Shiro was pale, and his nose scar stood out even more than it had did before. His breathing was ragged, fast, and shallow. 

He needed help, and _fast_.

Keith didn't want to take his eyes off his brother, but turned around to face Pidge, from her crouched position.

"Take your left boot off." Keith demanded, dragging over the first-aid kit.

"What? Why?" Pidge asked, taking a seated position.

"The weird purple monkey got to your leg, let me see." 

"Oh, yeah it did. But it wasn't as bad as Shiro getting strangled." Pidge pointed out, and she removed her boot.

It wasn't bad, it was sluggishly bleeding from multiple spots, but it was ok overall.

Keith didn't say anything in reasponse other than cleaning the blood off. It didn't take him long to do, but Pidge did hiss in pain a couple of times.

He went on to wrapping her leg in bandages, tight so she could still put her boot on.

"Are you ok? Did you get hurt?" Pidge asked, putting her boot back on.

"No." Keith responded, while packing away the first-aid kit.

"Ok, well, those monkey things, were kinda cool." Pidge shrugged.

Keith gave her a scowl, how in the world were they cool?! They were literally just attacked by those things.

"No no no. Think about it. They blended in perfectly with the purple bark of the trees, thats how they got the jump on us. It's camouflage, animals back on Earth use the enviornment like that too." Pidge's explanation made sense, it was kinda cool.

"I guess." Keith rolled his eyes and shrugged.

"You know, I'm glad we found Shiro during the daytime, it would have been _impossible_ for us to find him in the night." Pidge pointed out.

Keith looked outside of the cave, daytime was nice, but it faded as soon as it started, the sun was already going down again.

But, he saw something purple light up the sky.

' _Whats with this planet, and purple things?!_ ' Keith asked himself.

Curious, Keith got up, and went to the cave entrance to look up at the sky. Only to find pure horror adapting onto his face.

_'The bombs... THE BOMBS!!'_

He ran back inside.

"PIDGE!! I THOUGHT YOU SET IT OFF!!" Keith yelled.

Pidge jumped up from her seated position to defend herself, not knowing what he was talking about.

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! AND WHY ARE YOU YELLING AT ME?!"

"THE BOMBS, SENDAK'S SHIP IS HERE, WE NEVER SET OFF THE BOMBS!!" Keith shouted, anger and panic on his face.

Why did they _HAVE_ to run out of the little luck they had now, of all times! Did Sendak _HAVE_ to come and make things ten-times worse?!

Pidge gasped. She never activated the bombs when they got into Green, now Sendak found them, and this is worst spot to be in.

"OH MY GOSH, WHAT DO WE DO?! WE CAN'T STAY HERE!!" Pidge yelled clutching onto her hair.

Keith ran over to grab his helmet, and put it on, and went to Pidge's side.

"Look, we need to move, I know, but we need to stay calm for now. We can't both panic, Shiro can't-... he can't plan for us right now." Keith winced, and glanced back over to Shiro's unconscious form.

"Ok, but where would we-"

"Hey, what- what's goin' on?"

Keith and Pidge looked back to see Shiro stood up, and was looking at them with furrowed brows.

Keith walked over to Shiro, and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Ok, look, we gotta move, Sendak found us. How are you feeling?" Keith asked, trying to hide the worry.

"What?! Sendak found us? I thought we blew up his ship!" Shiro's stared back at Keith with wide, unfocused eyes.

"Hey, hey, relax... I thought we blew up the ship too, but we never activated the bombs. Does your neck still hurt?" Keith put both of his hands on Shiro's shoulders, and he visibly relaxed.

"Well- yeah, it still hurts a bit, but we don't have a map to this planet or, a decent format of where things are. So we gotta get moving, now if we wanna find our next spot." Shiro's eyes refocused a little, as his brows furrowed again.

Keith didn't like the idea of Shiro taking control of the situation when this poison was taking him out of his normal state of mind. It clearly affected him a lot.

It only made him worry more.

"Ok." 

They grabbed their stuff, and began their journey in the night time, and the extremly dark forest.

"Let's go."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tunned! 
> 
> Will Sendak find them? Or, will the Castle find them first?
> 
> Sorry for another cliffhanger, and I didn't forget the bombs, it was aaaall part of my plan! ;)


	4. The Hunt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Castle has got the amplifier to work, and Sendak hunts down Shiro, Keith, and Pidge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woohoo!! Thanks for all of the kudos, guys!! Here's the next chapter!! Hope you enjoy!
> 
> To those who haven't gotten my Hiatus note, I wanted to alert you all that my writing is done on a phone.  
> So if you use your laptop, you may see a lot of spaces in between the writing.  
> It looks much different from my Pov.
> 
> Thanks for reading my short note to all of you wonderful people. :)

"So...you let them get away, Lexion?" Sendak asked, giving a fierce scowl to his assistant sitting on the other side of the table before him.

The tension between the two could be described as many things. Lexion could almost feel the anger radiating off of Sendak. It was almost like the room had been set on fire, as he began to note the beads of sweat coming down his forehead.

His stare of clear dissapointment, and rage evident in Sendak's eyes. Rather actually the only emotion visible. Lexion scrambled in his mind, trying not to show his panic, though it was very clear when he spoke.

"Sir, I-I'm sorr-"

"ENOUGH!! MAYBE I SHOULD GET RID OF YOU RIGHT NOW! DO _**NOT**_ MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE HAXUS DID!" Sendak slammed his fists down on the table, standing from his position.

"Bu-but-"

"IT'S ALWAYS EXCUSES!! DO YOU TAKE ME FOR A FOOL?!"

"N-No! Never, s-sir!" Lexion stammered, shaking his head, gaze determined.

"THEN, ENOUGH!! YOU LET CHAMPION AND HIS LITTLE FRIENDS GET AWAY!!" Sendak slammed his fists against the table again.

Making Sendak angry was never a good thing. Lexion hadn't plan for it to happen, but it did. He stammered to find something to calm him down before he lost his head. Though his mind panicked, he kept his expression as calm and composed as he could.

"Then what I did will cause you to be very, pleased..." Lexion smirked, a little too arrogant.

"Oh?" Sendak sat back down in his spot, his tense gaze not leaving Lexion's eyes.

Lexion silently let out a breath of relief as he managed to get Sendak's attention with that.

"I managed to poison Champion." 

Lexion could say he was proud with himself, which he was. Very. But, he should've killed Champion right then and there.

He was right there, held against his will with a knife to his throat, as Champion's friends were to far away to come and assist him.

Lexion was faintly dissapointed with himself that he let Champion get away.

If he manages to get away again... Sendak will have his head.

"That is pleasing..." Sendak clicked his finger against his chin, smiling.

"What's the plan?" Lexion smiled back.

At least he didn't just get thrown out the airlock, that was pure relief. Lexion was rather weary of this, but he went with it. As long as his head's still attached to his neck, he's absolutly fine.

"Why don't we go hunt them down, hm? All three of them are stranded, and they have seemed to forgotten about the bombs they set." Sendak laughed.

After the paladins escaped, Sendak went to the control room to silence the alarm, which was rather agravating.

Only to find the paladins had left him a little present.

 _Bombs_.

They were placed in rather stratigic places, that was sure to blow up his ship. Sendak couldn't let that happen, not when he had revenge to plot.

He quickly got rid of them, meaning litererally throwing them out of the airlock, glad they hadn't been set off just as yet.

Seems like the paladin's plan had failed.

"That sounds like fun..." Lexion gave a vicious smile, all of his pointed teeth showing. 

* * *

"Sire, we are entering the planet's orbit now." A voice called from the controls.

"Good, any sign of the Green Lion? It was shot, nothing can withstand that cannon." Sendak asked, he folded his hands behind his back.

"Not yet, sire."

"Hmm...keep looking. We are to capture the Green Lion, it's paladin, and the red paladin." Sendak explained, he was _**loving**_ this situation.

With the Green Lion stranded, 3 paladins down, AND no Castle in sight, Sendak was sure they were no match to him and his crew in their state.

"What about Champion?" The Galran soldier looked back to his commander with a questioning look in his eyes, though it is not visible through his helmet.

Sendak barked out a laugh.

"I think it's time to see how little Champion has grown since our last encounter..." Sendak sounded smug, with the look on his face, anyone could guess just that.

"Sir, if you want a fight, where would this take place, exactly?" Lexion asked from his poistion to Sendak's right side.

"Where it all started..."

Lexion raised his brow at this. He'd known Sendak for a while now, and from what he's heard, Champion is a killing machine in the Arena, and Sendak wants to prove his power over him more than anything.

It's almost like it had been Sendak's only goal, but he has other ones...like, capturing the Lions, and the Castle along with the paladins to turn them in to Zarkon.

Lexion has also heard of many rumors that Champion was the one that took Sendak's eye. Maybe he was, maybe he wasn't. It would explain some of the things Lexion has seen though, if it was true.

He hadn't known if he wanted it to be true or not.

"The Arena?" Lexion guessed. He hoped he learned enough to get this right at least, seeing as though he let the paladins get away.

Messing up twice? He'll be _**dead**_ , by morning. Being dead means your limited to a lot of things.

You can't see the people you care about anymore, you- your basically stuck doing nothing for the rest of eternity.

"Your learning! I knew you had something to offer." Sendak laughed, smacking Lexion's shoulder with his prosthetic.

That _hurt_ , Lexion rubbed his now aching shoulder.

_Geez..._

"Sire, we have eyes on the Green Lion."

Sendak looked up, and he almost missed it. The Green Lion was half covered by old trees with purple bark, and orange leaves. The Lion was lying down, and not even the particle barrier was up. But surely, the Green Lion was down for the count, from what Sendak observed.

"Well, that's lovely. Bring us down to land, we shall capture the Green Lion, and find the paladins."

"Sire, how do we track the paladins down?" The soldier looked up from his position to look at Sendak.

"It shouldn't be too hard to find them, besides, they have no escape..." Sendak's evil grin and laugh echoed through the halls of his crusier.

His laugh didn't just echo the halls, it also echoed through Lexion's ears. He may have noted that Sendak is definitely on the side of _crazy_ , and downright nuts.

Lexion is starting to have second thoughts on his job as Sendak's right-hand man. Maybe he made the wrong decision...

... _Right_?

* * *

"Mmm! Lance, your milkshakes are the most flavorful thing I have ever had!" Allura exclaimed, having finished her third milkshake. She was sitting on Coran's right, as Lance was sitting next to her, drinking his own milkshake.

"Yes! It reminds me of norenix!" Coran recalled, placing down his second empty cup down. He beamed a happy smile as he looked around to the faces of his fellow friends.

"Junniberry was always my favorite." Allura smiled down at her own cups.

"Nore...ix?" Lance asked, tilting his head to the side. Hunk looked utterly confused too, from his position to the left of Coran.

"Norenix." Coran corrected, with a slight hint of annoyance.

The Altean words, or, alien as the humans call it, have been rather tricky on them. Coran couldn't help that, nor could Allura, but he was actually starting to get a bit annoued now. How long has it been already?

"It's a sweet, but light and flurry delicacy, there are a wide variety of different flavors to it as well. It was very popular amongst my people, an Altean favorite." Allura explained, looking to Lance's face with a smile.

"So, it's like ice-cream?" Hunk asked, leaning forward to meet Allura's eyes.

"Ice...cream?" Coran raised and eyebrow at him.

"Yeah, I mean, based on your description it's basically the same thing." Hunk answered, offering a small smile.

"Cookies n' creme is my favorite, Hunk's favorite is chocolate, not the best flavor, but ok." Lance shrugged.

"We have many other flavors too. Like vanilla, strawberry, banana, mint chocolate-chip, rocky road, man that ones good, we also have pecan, birthday cake, neapolitan, and oh man, the list goes on and on." Hunk looked up to the ceiling with his eyes closed and a smile.

"We should totally make ice-cream for when we find Shiro, Pidge, and Mullet!"

"That sounds nice." Coran smiled as he twisted the ends of his mustache

"Humans are so interesting!" Allura beamed a smile at them.

"Yes princess, we have very different cultures, but we have some things in common! As humans say, twinzies!" Coran gave a wide grin at Lance, and Hunk.

Lance covered his mouth as he tried to hold back his laughter, a few snickers escaped from behind his hands.

Hunk had his jaw dropped opened.

"Who taught him twinzies..." 

With that, Coran and Allura both tilted their heads in confusion as Lance lost it, and fell to the floor laughing harder than he should be.

Hunk paused for a minute and stared at Lance before furrowing his brows and saying,

"It was Lance, wasn't it."

Lance pratically dying on the floor still managed an answer to Hunk.

"Y-yes...It was I, the great- _Pfft_ -Lance!" Lance continued to laugh his head off, as tears of joy came down from his eyes.

Hunk sighed and slapped his face, as he started to laugh.

"That's Lance for ya..."

* * *

"Keep a look out for them, Lexion. Don't loose them again." Sendak growled.

Sendak's troupes have landed on the planet, and they've been looking around for about an hour now.

The dark wasn't helping their search, but they had the proper gear for this. Sendak was hopefully assuming the paladins didn't.

With flashlights that lit up a blinding purple in hand, they begun their search at the Green Lion's crash site.

The Green Lion was then moved into the ship with ease using the tractor beam. It was very helpful, they wouldn't have been able to drag the Lion in themselves.

Once the Green Lion was secured, they then set off in different directions.

Lexion and Sendak set up different patrols to find the paladins faster, they currently have 3 patrols in total. All taking a different direction to scout.

7 sentries, and each with their own living soldier. Sendak's troupe has 9 sentries with 2 living soldiers.

"Yes, sir." Lexion nodded, gaze determined.

He's noted that Sendak can definitley be scary and mean, and rarely ever forgiving. This job has not been easy on him, but if he were to _betray_ Sendak...

 _No_! He can't do that, he's loyal to the Galra! _Vrepit Sa_!

But...if he does...maybe he can seek help from Voltron? Maybe they'll be forgiving enough...

After what he's done? 

He almost _killed_ Champion. Heck, he poisoned the guy!

Sendak is practically Champion's mortal enemy, and he's sided with him. How could Voltron ever let him in?

Maybe if-

**_Rustle_ **

The soldier's guns were bought out, and aimed at whatever made the sound.

Lexion bought out his own gun, which he was glad he grabbed before they left Sendak's cruiser.

Something popped out of a orange bush and it just so happened to be the same creature that attacked Shiro, Keith, and Pidge.

It's teeth were bit back in a snarl, trying to look vicious, and it's purple ears were curved, as a warning.

Sendak took one look at it, cleary amused by how 'scary' it was. He bought his foot to the creature, and kicked it with enough force to send it a couple feet away from his troupe.

The sentries and soldiers still had their guns trained on the weird purple monkey, but it hisses at them, and scrambled away before it had any chance if being shot.

"Pitiful." Sendak snorted.

The sentries relaxed their stances and so did the soldiers, brining their guns down, pointed to the blue ground.

" _Sir, we found traces of a fire, and blood in a cave."_

Sendak heard over his comms.

"Which direction?" Sendak held up his prosthetic arm, meaning to tell his troupe to stop moving forward. The sentires and the soldiers followed orders as they stopped in their tracks.

Lexion had a sinking feeling in his gut, as he looked down to his feet.

He heard Sendak talking to the troupe that had found traces of a fire, and blood. Lexion stepped away pretending to examine the bush the creature jumped out of.

He knealed down, and took a small vile out of his hidden suit pocket.

The vile was filled with a purple liquid, the one that he cut Champion with. He stared down at it in dismay, and regret.

Lexion scrunched up his face, as he pulled another one from his pocket, but it contained a glowing _green_ substance.

The _antidote_...

The light eminating from the vile lit up his face in a green. The glow wasn't too significant, but it sure made a difference in the dark atmosphere of the planet that seemed to favorite the color purple.

"Lexion, did you find something?" Sendak called out to him, approaching Lexion's crouched position.

Lexion moved fast, as he stuck both viles back into his pocket, as he swiftly stood up and turned around in the same movement.

He held his hands behind his back, hoping Sendak didn't see the Green glow from the antidote.

"No sir." Lexion answered confidently, feeling his shoulders tense up.

"Then let's get a move on, we have some paladins to find." Sendak gave an evil grin followed by his horrfying laugh of delight, as he turned around leading his troupe.

Lexion flinched, then jogged to catch up with his troupe, now settleing on something...something _VERY_ important...

_Sendak is a mad man._

_Who needs to be **stopped**._

As much as Lexion wanted to deny that, it was true. Sendak's power, and rank went straight to his head. Lexion knew this was the worst possible thing to decide on right now, but...

He already made up his mind.

* * *

"So how does this work?" Allura asked, folding her hands infront of her staring at the machine next to the Teleduv.

"It's just like using the Teleduv. You just step in and work your magic!" Hunk explained. He stood next to Lance with his hands on his hips.

The amplifier was completed.

It still maintained it's odd box shape, but it looked pretty good. The color matched the Castle so well, it actually looked like it had ment to be on the Bridge. Naturally, Coran and Hunk were proud of their work, but anxious to find their lost friends.

"That sounds simple enough." Allura smiled, as she stepped over into the opened metal door with an enforced glass window, that was being held open for her by Coran.

Coran grabbed her wrist before she entered.

"Please be careful, don't exhaust your limits. We can find another way if we have to." Coran tilted his head to the side as he wore a sympathetic expression.

He may have been proud of the amplifier, but he was worried. For both the lost paladins, and his princess. She exhausted her limits of her powers on the Balmera where they met Shay, and he didn't want that to happen again.

"I won't, but we must find Shiro, Keith, and Pidge. We are very vulnerable, yes. They could also be injured, and who knows what Sendak has done to them we cannot take any chances oncesoever." Allura had a determind smile on her face with shining hope sparkeling in her eyes, as she then placed a her hand over Coran's.

Coran returned the same smile as he let go of his gentle grip on Allura's wrist, giving a nod of approval.

Allura gave him a nod as she then stepped into the amplifier.

As Allura stepped inside, there wasn't much room, but just enough. She also acknowledged that there was no place for her hands like the Teleduv. She looked around for any button, or symbol, but she got nothing in return but a semi dark box.

She looked out the window of the door and gave a confused look, followed by a shrug. They could have at least told her what exactly to do...

Hunk walked over to the window and nodded towards to what looked like hand prints on the wall.

 _Oh_.

Allura blinked at this. It was rather dark in there with only one window to use as a so called light source.

Allura turned back around to see a smiling Hunk, she gave him a smile of thanks and walked over to the wall with the hand prints on them.

She placed her hands on the prints, and closed her eyes to focus.

Allura took a deep breath in, and huffed it out. Her hands started to glow a pink, and the amplifier lit up the Castle's normal glowing blue, but brighter. 

Hunk wore an excited grin on his face, as the amplifier worked just as it was supposed too.

Coran was just as happy.

Allura's mind searched, and searched, for their missing paladins, until- _There_! She gasped as she cautioisly remover her hands, and sprinted out smiling.

Thankfully, it hadn't taken too much of her energy out of her. Coran looked pleased at her condition once she stepped out.

"I've found them! It worked!" Allura shouted in sheer joy.

Hunk and Lance hugged eachother in happiness, laughing to their success.

"That's wonderful, princess!" Coran exclaimed as he offered a wide grin.

"Well then, where are they?" Lance asked, from his position still strapped in Hunk's feirce, but gentle bear hug.

Allura said no words as she walked over to the Teleduv stand. She then opened the star maps and began to scroll through them. As she scolled, the Castle's Bridge was covered in beautiful dancing stars, followed by the faint blue glow they had all gotten used to by now.

Allura stopped scrolling as she zoomed in on a particular planet, to reveal that the surface was blue with orange.

"Killio, is an uninhabited planet, and rather peaceful." Allura explained as she turned to face the others.

"But...why would they stop there?" Lance asked, his blue eyes widened, as his brows furrowed in great concern.

 _Silence_.

"You don't think they crashed...d-do you?" Hunk stammered, now fiddling with his fingers.

"Wait, but...what about Sendak?" Lance asked, frantically looking around to the faces of his friends, seeking an answer.

"Oh no..." Hunk stared wide-eyed.

"Princess?" Coran looked over to Allura, as she tensed under his glance. The others looked over at her too.

A once happy and cheerful mood on the Castle's Bridge settled into an uneasy atmosphere, as they all stared wide-eyed at eachother. Not knowing what to say next.

"Then let's go rescue them." Allura's scared expression changed into a determined look.

Brows furrowed, she placed her hands onto the Teleduv's stands, and closed her eyes to focus on creating a wormhole.

The others wordlessly moved over to their assigned station, with worried looks on their faces.

Despite the tension on the Bridge, Allura was going to get to her paladins first, before Sendak got his nasty claws on them.

_Right...?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise!!! I updated early!! :DD ( Meaning I finished writing this 1:10 in the morning. )
> 
> Thanks for reading, as always, stay tunned for my next update! Please feel free to leave feedback on the story so far!
> 
> I'm working on a lot of fanfic ideas right now, you'll see a lot more from me later on!
> 
> Thanks so much! ^U^


	5. A Villian's Betrayal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, this chapter is too intense to say anyhting, but you do get a bit of Shiro's POV, haven't done a lot of that. :)
> 
> *WARNING* Lots of blood is mentioned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Thanks so much for all the support, and I'm asking you to please stay home, to stay safe. I know quarentine is hard, but we can get through this together. ❤ :)
> 
> I'm not dead, don't worry. I'm really sorry I haven't posted in so long, I ran into some issues. I hope you do enjoy this chapter, now that it is up. 
> 
> Thanks for understanding. 💞 >w<

Sendak angrily threw a piece of charred purple bark out of the cave with his prosthetic in pure frustration. The bark flew until it hit the ground with a _thud_ , as it broke into multiple pieces.

Lexion looked over to Sendak, who looked like he wanted to straight up murder someone. He gulped as he looked away to the other soldiers in the cave.

"Sir, I don't think the paladins are here anymore." A soldier spoke up, looking from the charred pile that was a fire, to Sendak. The soldier winced under his gaze, as Sendak turned his head to face him.

"Thank you for stating the obvious..." Sendak growled, as he walked back over to continue his search around the cave for any more possible clues. 

They had been searching this cave for about 30 doboshes, the other troupe that found the cave was here helping with the search. They hadn't found anything more than the fire and blood. Although, there was a particular spot on the wall _caked_ in blood.

Lexion walked over to the wall, and traced his fingers over the blood. He winced as he noted it was recent. He then looked to the floor to see more blood, but- _what?_

His eyes followed the floor with visible spots of blood, as it lead out the cave. Lexion's look of confusion vanished as his eyes widened.

_A trail..._

He could find the paladins...this is his chance!

"Sir, I want to do a perimeter check, just in case the paladins decide to come back." Lexion looked back to Sendak, and hoped he didn't send anyone with him. That would ruin his entire plan.

"Go ahead, Lexion." Sendak called, not looking up from his gaze at the large amount of blood on the wall.

Lexion tried not to start running to raise suspicion, if Sendak finds the trail of blood...

He calmly sped walked into the forest, once he was out of Sendak's line of sight, the began to run, and hoped he could find the paladins before it was too late. Lexion continued to run, as fast as he could.

Until, he heard voices nearby...

* * *

"Wow, Killio looks weird..." Lance exclaimed, from his station on the Bridge.

"Yeah, no kidding." Hunk agreed.

They arrived at the planet that is said their fellow paladins crashed on. In hopes they would find them without trouble, they cautiously approached Killio.

No crusiers were in the area as far as they could tell. Allura double checked the scanners just to be sure, Sendak's crusier was no where to be seen...same with the paladins.

As they got closer to the planet, the scanners picked up something...

Allura gasped, as she turned looked to Coran, who had the same horrified look on his face. Lance noticed and looked to Hunk.

"Allura...?" Lance asked, unsure of what her gasp, and horrified look meant.

"Sendak's crusier...is on planet Killio."

A round of gasps filled the Bridge, as Allura pushed the Castle's boosters to go faster. 

"Be ready. We must protect Shiro, Keith, and Pidge." Allura ordered, as she refocused on getting into the atmosphere of Killio.

"Wait, where's the Green Lion?" Hunk asked, knowing getting even one of Lions was Sendak's goal.

"It's in Sendak's ship!" Allura snarled. "Now we get the Green Lion first, then go find our paladins. We'll land the Castle in a safe spot." Allura finished as she bought the Castle down into Killio's atmosphere.

Hunk and Lance nodded, with determined looks on their faces.

"Princess, how are we going to get Green without Number 5?" Coran asked, as he looked back to Allura.

"I've got a plan."

* * *

Lexion stopped when he heard the voices, and ran in it's direction. It didn't sound like the other troupes, it sounded like-

"Shiro's not breathing, Pidge!"

"I know, I know! But what can we do?!"

Lexion hid behind a tree to watch, only for his spying eyes to find a small clearing, with two beings before him.

The one in green was standing, clutching her hair, arguing with the one in red, who was kneeling infront of-

_Oh no..._

He scrambled to pull out the vile glowing green, as he hoped they wouldn't attack on sight of him. If Lexion ever wanted a chance to side with the paladins at all, this was how he was going to do it.

He walked out into the clearing to see the red one pulled out a knife and extended it standing in defence, his feirce snarl, and wild eyes carried multiple meanings. He also had tears running down his cheecks.

The green one stood as well, with tears spilling out of her eyes. The two stood infront of their fallen friend.

"You...this is your fault!" Keith shouted, he gave a yell of anger as he charged forward, his once perfect form now clumsy, and sloppy.

Lexion dodged with ease, as he raised his hands infront of him, his right hand holding the vile containing the antidote.

"Wait! I'm here to help!" He pleaded.

"What help can you give?! YOUR responsible for this!" Keith yelled, panting for breath, as more tears spilled out of his eyes. 

"This is the antidote, it's not to late for Champion." Lexion explained as he showed Keith the antidote.

"Don't call him that..." Keith snarled, not dropping his stance.

"Why should we trust you? Keith's right, this is your fault." Pidge did her best to keep her voice from breaking due to her tears, but she failed to sound as composed as she looked.

Lexion turned to face her, she went back to crouching by Champion. Holding her fist up in defence.

"Your right, you have no reason to trust me, but I've realized Sendak is a mad man. If you want to save your friend, you must apply this to your friends neck imediatly." Lexion held out the vile to Pidge, as she stared at it with distrust and dismay. He was sure to remember not to call Champion, 'Champion' in hopes he can still have his head by the end of this planets rotation.

"How do we know this isn't some other poison you have?" Pidge raised her eyebrow at it, staring back at Lexion.

"Gimmie that." Keith stormed over, and snatched the vile oit of Lexion's hand, and opened the first-aid kit they had with them to find bandages.

Pidge stood from her position next to Shiro's head to switch with Keith, holding her stance to make sure Lexion didn't try anything suspicious.

Lexion couldn't blame them, he'd hurt their friend, he would think he would react the same way.

Keith quickly pulled out bandages and poured some of the green antidote unto it, then wrapped Shiro's neck as fast as he could, in hopes he still had time.

Lexion could see all of the blood that caked his neck, he didn't do all of that damage, but he was still regretting poisoning Champion. His face was alarmingly pale, and Champion's face showed no emotion at all.

Beads of sweat rolled down Keith's forehead, mixing with his tear tracks as held Shiro's human hand.

"C'mon Shiro...don't do this to me." Keith mumbled, as he rested his forehead on his brother's chest.

Keith waited, and waited, hoping Shiro would start breathing again. This can't be the end, it can't. Not when the universe still needs Voltron.

And especially not when he needed him. 

What was he to tell the others back at the Castle? Shiro has survived the Arena, and an entire year in prison. He _can't_ go down like this.

As if a miracle happened, Shiro sucked in a shuddering breath, and a moment later his breathing suddenly returned to normal.

Keith shot up and looked to his brother's face to see if he was awake, or if he had opened his eyes, but they still closed.

Lexion let out a sigh of relief, as that drew attention to him. Both Pidge and Keith looked up at him, with shocked looks on their faces, but they had a sense of gratefulnesss in their eyes.

"Why did you help us?" Pidge asked, shaking her head in confusion and shock.

"I told you, I've realized Sendak is a mad man, and I want to help you get rid of him." Lexion nodded, keeping his expression blank, in hopes the paladins would listen to him. If they did, oh, what a miracle that would be for him.

"I still don't trust you..." Keith growled, a feirce scowl appearing unto his face as rage and fire filled his eyes.

"That was expected...but, you must let me help you, I want Sendak gone as much as you do." Lexion pleaded, he couldn't let this chance slip up, not when he's already made up his mind to betray Sendak. He can't go back now, if he could just get the paladins to trust him somehow, it would be a miracle.

Both the green and red paladins gave him uneasy looks, but another voice caught his attention.

"Lexion, where are you?"

Lexion jumped, and swiftly looked behind him, as he heard rustling of bushes, and Sendak's voice call put to him. He hastily looled back to the paladins wide-eyed stares with a determined look on his face.

"C'mon, you guys gotta hide." Lexion whispered, as he made his way to the other side of Champion- Who's name was Shiro, apparently -to assist the red paladin in carrying him out of the small clearing.

The red paladin gave yet another scowl towards him, and bit back his lips into a feirce snarl.

" _Do **NOT** , touch him._" Keith growled, slightly pulling away from Lexion.

He wasn't about to let Lexion touch his brother again, not when he was on watch. Keith wouldn't consider himself too overprotective, just- _concerned_.

Lexion blinked, but complied as he nodded, stepping away, heading back towards Sendak's calling voice. He put a hand on the tree as he carefully looked around for Sendak. 

Sendak was looking around with the troupes, assuming he found the trail of blood on the blue ground of Killio, he looked back to see the Green and red paladins staring back at him from behind a tree on the other side of the clearing they were once positioned in.

Before rounding the purple tree infront of him to meet up with Sendak, he mouthed ' _be safe'_ to the paladins, in hopes that something caused them to trust him now.

Lexion rounded the tree, jogging to catch up with Sendak.

"I'm here!"

Sendak turned to face him, but his expression was unreadable.

"Did you find something?" Sendak raised an eyebrow in question, as he crossed his prosthetic over his arm.

"No, sir." Lexion shook his head, now feeling uneasy after he just saved Champion's life. Calling Sendak 'sir' sounded weird in his ears, but he did his best to not sound suspicious. Lexion sounded _very_ suspicious to himself, but judging by Sendak's expression, he guessed he didn't really sound like that.

"Why didn't you tell us you found a trail of blood?" Sendak leaned forward to reach Lexion's level of sight.

"I just thought if the paladins were here, I could catch up to them before they got away." Lexion explained, keeping his face as composed as possible, it felt like Sendak was staring right into his **_soul_**.

Also, he had no idea where that excuse came from, Lexion was guessing it was just his luck.

"Fine, but we still have to find them. And since your so intent on the search, you'll be taking the lead." Sendak gave his evil grin, as he pulled away from Lexion.

Lexion gulped, this wasn't good...

* * *

All he could feel was the sensation of falling...

He was so tired, and his neck burned with pain, all he wanted to do was sleep forever. Sleeping forever meant no more pain, no more suffering, and no more worries.

How he longed for freedom from all of the burdens he carries.

He let himself drift, and sink into an endless black abyss, that he sees no end too. No sounds surrpund him, but the constant calling to open his eyes, and breathe again.

When had he stopped breathing?

Confusion filled his mind, as he goes to open his eyes, to see what was disturbing his everlasting sleep of peace. His eyes feel as though they're glued shut, or one could even guess they were stapled due to the pain behind his eyes.

**My paladin.**

...What? He was supposed to be alone... He was starting to think he wasn't alone anymore, but that voice...it sounded... Almost like-

**Do not give up just yet.**

_Who are you?_

Maybe trying to talk to whoever this was, wasn't the best idea, but he had no others. He was just lost. In this endless place of confusion, and nothingness.

Maybe this being could help him get out. Something was urging him to escape, it was frantic, and gave a sense that he was in danger somehow. But he ignored it, it hurt too much to even try to think.

**I am a friend.**

_Where am I?_

And how did he get here? Well, wherever 'here' is... The sinking feeling made him feel like he was underwater, but how? Was another question that seemed to go unanswered.

 **Do not fret, you are not** **well.**

Not well? He guessed that was a possible case. The blurriness of his head was too much of a sign that he was injured, or something serious had happened to him.

As much as he tried to pry his eyes open, hey wouldn't budge. The voice sounded like it was infront of him, or- more like _all_ around him.

**You must open your eyes, my paladin.**

The voice was all top familier to him, but something was clouding his mind, and his ability to think. Was this being friendly? They sounded friendly at least, and he felt a sensation of warmth coming from this being that he could not see.

Something in his cloudy mind was urging him to open his eyes, not to mention the voice was asking him to.

But he couldn't open his eyes, and he couldn't breath, there was too much pain in his neck, and a new headache that formed hurt so much it threatened to split his head open.

**Breathe, all is well.**

Oh...

Breathing isn't something he tried yet, probably becuase he felt at ease in this trance he was in. This place didn't require him to breathe, and it took all the pain away. If he was sinking, or underwater, he knows very well you can't breathe underwater. So, why even bother trying?

**Breathe, all is well.**

Though the voice repeted the same line, he felt like it sounded more of a demand than a way for comfort like before.

He wouldn't admit he was scared to try to breathe, but just concerned. The feeling of water filling your lungs, and panic flodding your mind as it happens before your now shutting eyes is proven unsettleing, to those who have experienced it.

Even if the worry and pain returned as he thought, he opened his mouth to take in a much needed breath of-... _air_?

Hadn't he been underwater?

His breath was more shuddering then he wanted it to be, but he continued to breath. He noted his head was still a bit cloudy, but the unbearable pain in his neck numbed. He wanted to open his eyes to see what was before him n confusion since the sinking feeling was gone.

But he was just so _tired_.

He let himself drift, but his senses came back to him. Someone was moving him, to another spot, likely in the shade somewhere because of the warmth that left his face, and was replaced with the cool of shade.

He wasn't sure how long he was just drifting off, somewhere in the middle of unconscious, and consciousness. His cloudy head cleared more, as his ears allowed him to hear voices around him. He wondered who they were, friends maybe? He couldn't find himself to make out the voices.

_Wait..._

He had his senses back, he didn't seem to be sinking anymore, he was now able to breathe again, and...could he open his eyes now?

Should he even try? What would he be greated by? The Galra? Some aliens that came to kidnap him? He hoped it was just his friends, and not-

_Keith and Pidge..._

_Sendak and his ship!!!_

His memories that were once foggy came back to him. He had been poisoned, and from what he's guessing not in the right state of mind. Everything after getting out of the Green Lion is extremly blurry, like he hadn't been there at all.

He needed to open his eyes, and find out where he was. He needed to make sure everyone was ok, even if his condition wasn't the best, he hoped nobody else had a worse one.

Now frustrated, his face scrunched up as he tried again to pry his eyes open. The last time he had tried he was unsuccessful, but he was hopeful this time. Although his body, and mind were exhausted, he can't rest now. He needs to get up. He can't waste anymore time then he already has.

His ears registered something...it was a sound- no, a voice. It was-

"K-Keith...?" 

_Wow._

**THAT** _,_ was his voice?! When had it gotten so horse? His throat felt as dry as desert sand, how long was he 'alseep'? Did he pass out, or something? 

"Shiro? Pidge, you heard that too right? I'm not going crazy, am I?"

Keith sounded frazzled, _oh god_ , he must have scared him. Now he seriously needs to open his eyes to reassure both him and Pidge that he is ok... _ish_.

"If your going crazy, that means I'm going crazy. I heard that too."

It didn't take much as he thought it would to open his eyes, the first thing he saw, was a very concerned looking Keith, staring right into his eyes. His vision was blurry, and- since when was the world spinning this much? Did he get hit in the head and get a concussion?

"Shiro? You with me?" Keith asked, Shiro felt a hand touch his right shoulder and slightly turned his head to see another very concerned looking person. _Pidge_.

Shiro's glazed eyes trailed back to Keith's as he went to answer him.

"Yeah...I-I think so." His voice still sounded absolutely _terrible_ , but that wasn't exactly the problem at hand. Sendak, was the real threat right now, and he definitly didn't forget Lexion.

"How are you feeling?" Keith leaned in closer, and Shiro could see his violet eyes a bit more clearly now. Anything beyond Keith, and Pidge's faces was blurred into an orange. He was guessing it was the weird orange colored leaves of the trees.

"...Weird." He made a face now noticing something was on his neck, and his head was pillowed in Keith's hands. His body was layed across the barren blue ground, but there were oddly visible little yellow flowers by his head.

Trying to think of what could have possibly made him feel this way, he came to 2 conclusions.

1, being this was the poison's doing. Though it was more pain then...whatever he was feeling. He honestly can't even put it into words, and he doubts he'll be able to try in his state right now.

2, he had a concussion. When had that happened anyways? Maybe when the Green Lion crashed on the planet? No, he would have known... How'd they even end up in the middle of a _forest_? Wasn't there a cave or something? _Ugh_ , he hates when he can't think, much less get a sense of what was happening right now.

"Weird how?" Keith's concern only grew, he didn't even try to hide it in both his voice, and his expression. Shiro couldn't blame him, the confusion on his own face must've looked bad, but he definitly needed some answers to clear this up a bit.

Shiro let out a huff of breath before answering. "I don't know... Was I drugged or something?" He shook his head in confusion, as he looked Keith dead in the eye.

"No...but you were poisoned, remember?" Keith tilted his head forward, in a gesture to encourage Shiro's memory to clear. Man, did he hate this so much.

"Yeah, but did I get a concussion, at some point being here?"

"No, we've got that at least..." Pidge shrugged, a sign of relief in her voice. Keith and Pidge didn't look injured or anything, so that was one worry crossed of his very long list of concerns.

Shiro scrunched up his face in fustration, as his gaze left Keith's eyes. He tried to think, but whatever this posion was, it was _strong_. Thinking back, and getting some thoughts and sensations to return, it almost felt like the posion was _gone_. Was it? That was a question for a bit later, right now he needs to think and focus.

_Patience, yields, focus._

He remembered Lexion sneaking up from behind him...then it was the crash. Little bits and pieces were there, like the cave that they were in, and Sendak landing on the planet to most likely hunt them down.

"Is the posion...gone?" Shiro asked, maybe it was, or maybe it wasn't. He really hoped it was though, Keith and Pidge shouldn't have to worry about him like this, he'll definitly be sure to apologize to them when this is over.

"Yeah, it should be..." Pidge trailed off, both her and Keith not meeting his eyes.

"What- what happened?"

"Lexion. He gave us the antidote."

Shiro's eyes widened, as his brows rose. _Lexion_ just _gave_ the antidote to them? The very guy who poisoned him in the first place? 

Keith an Pidge had some explaining to do.

* * *

"Soooo...let me get this straight. The Princess, who is usually always composed and reasonable, just told us to rip through Sendak's ship, and nothing else." Lance simplified, on he and Hunk's way to their Lion's hangers.

Their armoured feet making noise as they continued down the long, and tall hallways of the Castle. The two had their helmets on, in case an update on Keith, Shiro, and Pidge's location was found. They had no idea where they were, and that was very worrisome.

"Yeah man, guess we're going to have to figure the rest out ourselves. At least you get a shot at leading." Hunk shrugged, visible fear in his expression though he sounded calm.

Lance's toothy grin sealed the deal, as a very large smirk appeared onto his face.

"Oh yes, Space Dad will see me in all my greatness, and Keith will coo at all my coolness." Lance pillowed his head in his hands, closing his eyes in satisfaction.

"What about Pidge?"

Lance opened his eyes wide, and followed the gesture with, "She'll...I guess maybe-...I don't know, man." Giving up, he closed his eyes once again.

"Are we ever going to tell Shiro you call him 'Space Dad'?" Hunk shook his head in amusment, as a faint smile appeared on his face.

"Heck no!" Lance dropped his hands by his sides, and bumped he and Hunk's shoulders together in a playful manner.

Hunk chuckled a bit, of course Lance wasn't going to tell Shiro. 

He couldn't wait to get Pidge, Shiro, and Keith back at the Castle. He hoped they weren't injured, from what he knows, a major battle might go down. They're going to need all the help they can get.

Little did Hunk know, he had no idea what he was about to get into...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!! This was only supposed to be 5 chapters, but I guess not. °<°
> 
> Please leave feedback! I love reading everyone's comments!!!


	6. Envasive Actions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Green Lion has been secured, but Shiro, Keith, and Pidge have yet to be. Lexion makes an extremly difficult decision.
> 
> 'A bit of Allurance in here, didn't plan it, but it happened.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello fans!! I present to you, chapter 6! We've come so far, and so have our paladins, thank you for all of the kudos and your support. Shout out to my friend Smallthingwrites! :)
> 
> Please note that his chapter did take longer cause I put a lot more writing into it, let me know what you think of the change! 
> 
> Now, you wanna know what happens, right? Then I'll let you go read the chapter now. ;)

Hunk nevously figited at the controls of his Lion. He didn't like this, just going straight in without a well thought out plan? Anxiety bubbled in his stomach, feeling a wave of nausea crash onto him. Yellow purred in his head as a way to comfort him, and his stomach began to settle.

Hunk smiled to himself, sending a mental thanks to Yellow. 

" _Hunk, you ready to kick some Galran butt?_ " Lance sounded over the comms. 

Hunk rolled his eyes, and went to reply with, "Yeah, I am. We need a plan though." Hunk gave an uneasy frown, although Lance could've see it, it was audible in his voice.

" _...You ok, man?_ " Lance asked thoughtfully, clearing now worrying for his friend.

"Yeah, yeah...it's just- I'm worried for Shiro, Pidge, and Keith. What if- Lance, what if something happened to them? I just want to get down there and get them back to the ship." Hunk explained. He was sure Lance was worried too, they all were. 

Lance sighed and shook his head, he opened his mouth to say something, but Allura beat him to it by saying, " _Paladins, I'm dearly sorry I gave you no plan at first. But, not to worry, I'm coming to assist you. Lance if you don't mind, I'll ride with you._ " Allura sounded hopeful, and confident.

" _Sure thing Princess._ " He clicked his tounge and gave a smirk, even if it wasn't visible, Hunk could easily imagine it.

As Lance made his way back to the Castle to pick up Allura, Hunk spoke up. "Are we sure this is a good idea? I mean, what's the plan, anyways." Hunk watched as Lance pulled back out of the Castle, and he was guessing Allura was already in the Blue Lion's cockpit.

" _The plan is quite simple, Hunk, I'm sure you and your Lion can tug the Green Lion around without any trouble?_ " Allura asked, Lance pulled up the face cam, and Hunk saw Allura griping onto Lance's seat as the two looked back at him.

"Well, yeah..." Hunk asked, he gave a quick glance over to the side, not wanting to meet Allura's eyes.

" _Good, our plan is for Lance and I to sneak onto Sendak's ship, and open the bay doors. After that is executed, you and your Lion can take Green out of there, and secure her back at the Castle._ " Allura explained, she had a determined look on her face. 

This plan...might work.

With Sendak busy with Shiro, Pidge, and Keith, they have time to get the Green Lion out of his ship. Hopefully after that, they can then get everyone back to the Castle safely once they locate them. It shouldn't be too hard, expecting a fight, the Galra's weapons are bright when they shoot. Killio's day cycle is short, most likely a couple of hours, in the night time it would be easier to spot the gun fire.

Hunk let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding in relief, that was a well thought out plan he had hopes in.

What could go wrong?

"That's good, but what about Blue? That'll be very noticible." Hunk countered, it was the only problem he had with this plan.

" _We'll hide her in the trees, they are pretty tall, and should be able to._ " Allura answered, a slight smile appearing onto her face, matching her gentle tone.

"Ok, then let's go save our friends." Hunk gave a condident smile before shutting off the face can.

* * *

"Allura, we don't have a map to this place, how are we going to find Green?" Lance asked Allura, turning to meet her gaze from his position infront of her.

"Magic, remember? It's how I found the Lion's whereabouts when we first met you 5." Allura smiled at him.

They had made it in to Sendak's ship, and according to Allura, not far from finding the Green Lion, which was presumably being held in the main hanger of the ship. She was crouched behind Lance at a corner, the two caustiously moving through without being seen.

"Oh, right." Lance blushed slightly, as he looked out over the corner of the wall to see if the coast was clear. "We're good." He went out into the empty hall followed by Allura, but stopped in the middle.

"Hey...it's really nice to be on a mission alone with you..." Lance blushed, placing a nervous hand on the back of his helmet. Allura smiled for a moment, until noticing something behind Lance.

A sentry had it's gun trained on his back, and it pulled the trigger. Allura's eyes widened, as whatever Lance was saying wasn't registering in her ears. 

"Lance!"

She dove forward, and landed on top of Lance. Lance's face flushed as red as Keith's Lion, but he also seemed to realize what happened after the gun shot wizzed past the two.

Allura got up as fast as she landed, and summoned her baton. Thankfully it was only one sentry that caught them, Allura charged at the sentry giving it no time to react as she smashed straight through it, leaving the sentry just a limp heap on the metal floor.

Lance stood slowly, and looked to Allura with a frazzled expression on his face, like he wasn't so sure of what exactly just happened.

"Are you alright?" Allura asked, her baton in her right hand as she approached Lance caustiously, as if he were a frightend animal. Her expression was soft, and concerned as she reached his side.

"Yeah...I'm- I'm fine. Wow, uh-...thanks, Allura. For saving me just now." Lance's brain wasn't processing fast enough, but he seemed to manage a 'Thank you' for the very least. He wasn't injured, and he didn't hit his head, but-...why hadn't he seen that coming? Lance was lucky for Allura to have been there. 

He's just, _shocked_.

It all happened so fast, one minute he was talking to Allura, the next she crashed into him, then completely destroyed a sentry, and now he was talking to her again.

"Alrighty then, we must continue moving." Allura nodded, a smile appearing onto her lips as she patted Lance's shoulder. She turned around to begin walking again, and Lance followed almost imediatly.

The two caustiously crept their way through the almost empty halls of Sendak's cruiser. Though, why had it been nearly empty? They had only run into 1 sentry... Lance had presumed that they were with Sendak, busy with trying to capture Shiro, Keith, and Pidge

"Allura, how close are we?" Lance whispered, he was now behind Allura, as they both crouched down behind a wall as fast as they could so they weren't seen by 2 sentries passing by in the opposite hall.

"Close now, but still, we must stay alert." She looked back to him with a determined look before looking away and saying into the comms, "Hunk, be ready. We're almost at the hanger."

" _Roger that, Princess._ "

Allura and Lance moved down a couple more hallways before making it to the main hanger, where the Green Lion had to be. The group of at least 7 sentries was the most they've seen all day. The two hid behind another wall, peeking out caustiously watching the sentries. Allura nodded to Lance, and he nodded back. Both knowing what to do.

Lance summoned his bayard in the same swift movement in standing up and dashing forward. He knelt down a good distance away from the sentries as he pulled up his sheild and openly fired.

Allura dashed out farther than he had, re-summoning her baton as she charged at the sentries. Ducking, and weaving, taking down whatever was in her path. Her movements were graceful, even if they were filled with the rage she kept hidden. 

She will **_not_** let Sendak get away with this.

Together, they managed to take down the remaining sentries, and got into the main hanger. Allura went to the control panel and stared at it in a bit of confusion, but she then shrugged and pressed a big red button with an unidentified Galran symbol on it. The hanger doors than opened, Hunk flew in as fast as he could, and grabbed the Green Lion, he then saw more sentries pool into the hanger, and went to pick up Allura and Lance as well.

Hunk dashed to the Castle, swiftly, but gently settling Green in her hanger, and letting out Allura and Lance. In seconds, he dashed back out.

As if no time passed at all, Hunk came back with the Blue Lion. 

Hunk took a couple of moments to compose himself. He's never flown _that_ fast before, but he did it. He got the Green Lion back safely, and he got Lance and Allura back uninjured as well.

He felt a sense of pride as he stepped down the ramp of his Lion with a proud smile on his face.

"That was AWESOME, dude!!" Lance exclaimed, as he threw his arms in the air, and carelessly dropped his helmet to the groud as he dashed over to Hunk.

"Yeah, it was." Hunk chuckled a bit, Lance looked like a child infront of him bouncing on his heels like that, with a bright look in his eyes.

"Now let's go retrive Shiro, Pidge, and Keith. Shall we?" Allura asked, a wide pleased smiles on her face, as she held her helmet in her hands.

"Yeah! Let's go!!" Lance yelled, he dashed out the hanger, before seconds later he came back in.

"You forgot your-" Hunk started, but was interrupted by Lance.

"I know, pretend you saw nothing." Lance swiftly picked up his helmet and slowly walked out the hanger with narrowed eyes, waving one of his hands infront of him, as if he had suddenly turned invisible.

Once he was out of the hanger, Allura looked to Hunk and gave him a questioing look. Hunk looked back blandly, and shrugged.

"It's Lance, that's what he does."

* * *

Lexion visibly curled in on himself as he led Sendak's- no - **his** troupe through the dark forest, looking out for any more sign of the paladins. He worried that Sendak might know something about the antidote, but he didn't seem to know based on his actions.

The sun was going down again, and it was getting darker. Lexion had a sinking feeling in his gut that he couldn't shake off, he needed to get away from Sendak. Blowing his cover or not, if he was on the paladins side, he needed to be there with them.

His mind fought with him as he silently continued forward, with his troupe trailing behind. The sounds of armoured boots crunching against fallen orange leaves, and blue grass echoing behind him.

Part of Lexion's mind is saying he shouldn't have saved Champion's life, and why did he have to betray Sendak? Wether he felt like it or not, he was Galran, and he swore aligence to Zarkon. And is against the paladins of Voltron, yet he _helped_ them.

The other part was saying that he had made the right choice, and he needed to get out of there to find the paladins. This side seemed more convincing since he can't turn back now, so he started to plan.

Soon he knew exactly what he needed to do. What he needed to do, was tell Sendak the cold hard truth, and _**run.**_

He made up his mind, as he calculated the best route to take for running. Once he solved it, he stopped in his tracks, and Sendak almost ran into his back. The troupe slowed to a stop.

"Lexion? Have you found something? Why have you stopped?" Sendak asked. 

Lexion took a deep breath to calm himself, he squared his shoulders and put his best determined look on his face as he turned around to meet Sendak's confused gaze.

"I'm not going to lead your search, _Sendak_." Lexion snarled, saying his name instead of 'sir' felt good as he spit it out with venom. He realized now how long he's been wanting to do that.

"Excuse me?" Sendak looked baffled, to have found his once faithful assistant, and right hand man disrespectful, to _him!_

"Yes, _excuse you, **sir.**_ Who gave you permission to destroy the universe?!" Lexion beared his teeth in his snarl, his scar across his face looking more like a mark of sincerity, his ears curved down, in a feirce manner.

"What-" Sendak stammered, unsure of what to do at this point.

"I'm done with your games, and I'm done with this job. I've sided with Voltron now, and I can assure you, Champion is still alive because _I GAVE HIM THE ANTIDOTE._ " Lexion could say he was proud, arrogant even. But he wore his smug expression with pride, he held Sendak's shocked look, before _**running**_.

Lexion was glad he waited long enough for the darkness of the sun going down to start settling in. Despite Sendak's shouts of protest behind him, he continued to run. Getting a strange sense of daja-vu that he has done this once before, but it looks like he needs to find the paladins...

_Again..._

* * *

In a another temporary hiding spot, three paladins are busy. The one in green fiddling with her helmet, seeing if they can get communications back the very least. The red paladin tending to his brother of whom he almost lost. Their next spot wasn't a cave, but a hidden spot in the now dark forest, supported by leaves and vines that kept them well hidden.

The orange color of the leaves and vines colabing with the purple bark of the trees, and the blue ground made it seem like they were in a room of some sort. That thought was distant, but there. The texture of the terrain around them giving it away.

"So...let me get this straight. Lexion, the one who poisoned me, just gave you the antidote and said he wanted to destroy Sendak?" Shiro summarized from his seated position against a tree. Still not understanding this, and the fact that there were _seven_ Keith's kneeling infront of him.

"Yeah, pretty much. You hungry?" Keith asked, a soft look on his face, it was one of those 'rare' expressions from what Shiro knows.

Shiro thought for a moment, he wasn't exactly hungry, and if the world could stop spinning, that would be great. If the poison really was gone, what was up with the dizziness? He probably should've said something about it, but did Keith and Pidge really need another thing to worry about?

No, no they do not.

The ration bars weren't exactly appetizing either, so he'd just suck it up and push on. Shiro would be ok, Keith and Pidge would be ok, everything would be fine. He just had to wait it out.

"No, I think I'm ok for now." Shiro replied with a soft smile, though he suspected his pale complexion not doing anything to support his statement.

"At least have some water, your voice sounds _terrible_." Keith pressed, his facial expression switching to concerned.

"That'd be nice." Shiro offered a small smile. Water sounded really good right now, it would definitly soothe his burning throat, and maybe, (hopefully) the dizziness that he seems to have. It took him all he had to not throw up from motion sickness. The world was still spinning, and as he looked to Keith's face, his fetures suddenly blurred, like in a game with really bad graphics, or lag even.

"Pidge? Can you get the canister?" Keith asked, turning around to where Pidge seemed to be.

"On it." Pidge soluted, she picked up the canister of water, and threw it underhanded to Keith, who caught it with ease.

Keith could've easily got it himself, but Shiro was guessing he didn't want to leave his side. Especially, after what just happened. Shiro couldn't blame him either, he would've done the same.

Keith looked back to Shiro and handed him rhe water canister. Shiro took it from his hands, and unscrewed the top. He bought it up to his mouth and only drank what he needed. The water felt as nice as he thought when it ran down his dry throat.

He screwed the top back on and handed it back to _three_ Keith's, who looked satisfied as he tossed it back to one Pidge.

This dizziness was getting to him... The water helped a bit, it cooled his throat and cleared a little more of his head. Shiro seemed to get lost in thought for a moment when he realized Keith was calling his name.

"-Shiro? You ok? You kinda...spaced out there." Keith's concerned face is what he looked up to, and a gentle hand on his left shoulder.

"Y-yeah, I'm... I'm." The dizziness overtook him as he let out a breath and slumped to the side, closing his eyes for a couple of seconds. Though he noted closing his eyes didn't stop the world from spinning, somehow it was worse beneath his eyelids.

"Woah!"

He felt Keith shift his grip as he fell, and as soon as he closed his eyes he re-opened them. "-a bit dizzy..." Shiro finished, looking back to Keith. Shiro watched as Keith hastily pulled the vile with the rest of the glowing green antidote from his pocket.

"Pidge? Do you think you can run a test on this somehow?" Keith held the vile up and waved it in the air for Pidge to see. Pidge looked up from fiddling on her helmet and walked over.

"I think so, is something wrong?" Pidge asked kneeling next to Keith- or...which one of her had talked?

"Umm... Shiro said he's dizzy." Keith's voice was coated in the development of a wave of brand new worries, Shiro can't have his friends worry for him, they shouldn't anyways. He's completely fine!

"Pidge, you don't need to, I'm completely fine!" Shiro turned his head to look at one of the Pidge's that he was sure was real.

"Shiro...I'm over here." Pidge said, her brows furrowing in deep concern. Apparently she was still next to Keith. This was getting confusing... Shiro decided he'll just keep his eyes closed until something happens, or if he's needed at some point. With the dizziness and confusion, he's pretty sure he's just going to be sitting around, and-

"Paladins! I have found you!" 

Not being able to verify the voice, Shiro snapped his eyes snap open and whipped his head around to the sound of the voice a bit too fast. Ignoring how the world spun, he only let his eyes widen.

Keith seems to still be wary of Lexion, and decides to pull out his Mamaron knife but made no move to igknowedge an attack of any kind. His brows furrow in an uneasy maner representing that he was clearly uncomfortable.

Pidge, at some point has seemed to move back to her spot and begun fiddling with her helmet again, Shiro vaugly wondered what she was doing, but he assumed she was trying to reach the Castle.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Keith asked, with the addition of his narrowed, stern eyes. There was a sense of an unfinished fire burning in his voice.

"Well, I have just told Sendak I'm done, and ran off to find you. Not my best plan, but it worked." Lexion smiled easily, pride was visible in his expression.

Neither Keith, or Shiro knew how to respond to that. The two just glanced at each other, giving wide-eyed unsure looks before glancing back to the smiling face of Lexion. Shiro thought he looked a bit friendly with his smile, but he's never actually talked to him...yet.

"I see Champi-" Lexion caught himself, and cleared his throat before continuing. "- _Shiro_ , is looking better from when the last time we spoke." He's still smiling, even the slash across his face doesn't look threatening. Shiro noted that his name did indeed sound weird coming out of a former villain's mouth-... _former_? He's not so sure at this point.

All he knows is that due to random dizziness, everyone seems to be duplicated, or even tripled, and he's been out of it the entire time of being here on this planet, that seems to have _killer monkeys_ with spikes on their tails, and not to mention the extremely odd coloring of this planet. Blue for the ground, purple for trees, and- _orange_ for _leaves_? _What_?

"Yeah, but what was in your antidote?!" Keith snarled, Shiro noticed the way Keith shifted, as if to physically sheild him from Lexion.

Lexion blinked in confusion. "...-What?" 

"Don't tell me dizziness is some side effect, cause why would you go out of your way to help us, when this is your fault! I really don't understa-" 

"Keith." 

Shiro was the one to stop Keith from starting to ramble, arguing wouldn't do anything anyways. Keith turned to face him with a blank expression, though his brows were up. Shiro shifted in his seated position and placed a gentle hand on Keith's shoulder. 

Keith's gaze sofented, and let his eyes drop down to look at his knees, still refusing to shift into a seated position from his crouching stance.

Shiro looked back to Lexion, who seemed to have an answer to Keith's poorly delivered question.

"Actually...using too much of that causes said victim to experience mass amounts of dizziness, and sometimes even nausea." Lexion explained. Shiro had a couple of blurry questions, and he wasn't sure which of to ask first.

He was just about ready to throw the questions at Lexion, until Keith had beat him to it by picking up his gaze to look at Lexion, and pull out what was left of the antidote.

_Oh..._

Shiro blinked in surprise, a noticible bit more than half of the vile was nothing but air. Keith used _more_ than _half_ of the antidote... No wonder why he had been so dizzy for the past- oh, who he is kidding, he can't tell the time right now.

"Oh...does it wear off?" Keith also looked surprised as he slowly asked his question, looking from the vile, to Shiro, then to Lexion.

"Eventually, yes, but it does take a while for it to completely wear off." Lexion crossed his arms, with a blank look on his face. Keith and Lexion didn't stop staring at each other, the two said nothing. Shiro was glancing back and forth, to see if anything would change, but, nothing. Until Pidge gave a whoop of triumph. She ran over with her helmet, and a weird little machine-thing attached to it.

"Guys! I can contact the Castle!! I got the comms to work!!" Pidge exclaimed, happily bouncing on her heels with a wide smile on her face.

"Pidge that's great!" Shiro smiled, glad that luck might be on their side now. Keith looked happy, and Lexion had a happy smile on his face too. Shiro wasn't entirely sure if Lexion was officially on their side, he seems trust worthy at least...

"Wait, what about our helmets?" Keith asked, gesturing to Shiro and himself. His once happy smile was now a determined expression.

"Oh, they work too." Pidge answered simply, her smile was now more smug looking. Keith imediatly glared at Lexion as if to say, ' _don't try anything_ '. Lexion took a large step back raising both his hands infront of his bulky chest, his expression was understanding.

Shiro figured Keith still didn't trust this guy.

Keith hesitated, but got up from his crouched position to run over to Pidge's mackshift workspace. He grabbed two helmets of the colors black and red, and returned to his original spot. 

Keith handed the black helmet to Shiro who took it with ease and slid it on over his head. Keith did the same with his own helmet and looked to Pidge who put hers on as well. She then pressed a button on the little machine attached to her helmet, and gave Shiro a nod of approval.

"Hello? Coran? Allura? This is Shiro, hailing the Castle of Lions, does anyone read me?" Shiro kept his gaze determined and full of hope. If only the Castle would just respond, that would be-

" _-hiro? T-is...Coran, I-....hello? Shiro? Are you still there?"_

Shiro imediatly smiled, they were _**finally**_ able to contact the Castle, after how long? Hope and relief coded his smile.

"Yes! Yes, I'm here. Keith and Pidge are with me too." Shiro hastily followed, to ensure Coran that everything was indeed fine right now... _ish_.

" _Oh thank the ancients, your all right!"_ Coran happiliy exclaimed over comms.

"Yes, we are ok for now and-"

"Shiro's injured." Keith interjected, with a flat look on his face, glaring at his older brother with an uninpressed look. Shiro paused, glaring right back with the the same look on his face before continuing on.

"It's not that bad, Coran. No need to worry I'm fine." Shiro pressed. People did _not_ need to worry for him right now, later fine, but now, no. He won't allow it.

"Really, so you can stand without falling over?" Keith raised an eyebrow at him...he had a point.

Shiro opened his mouth to protest, but he didn't have a good reson to counter that. Instead he looked away from his brother's pointed stare. Shiro knew he would fall over if he tried to stand, the world was still spinning at impossible speeds. Though it wasn't as bad as before when he woke up.

"Exactly. Coran, where are you guys?" Keith asked, he lifted his head to look at the dark sky, slightly blocked with bright orange leaves. Twinkling stars were visible, and it was honestly a beautiful sight to see.

" _Well, we are in Killio's atmosphere, Lance, Hunk, and Allura just got the Green Lion securred. And- oh hello!"_

_"Coran, who are you talking to? Did you- SHIRO?! MULLET?! PIDGE?! IS THAT YOU?!"_

_Lance._

"Yeah, it's us." Shiro happily replied, looking down to his hands in his lap. At some point Lexion sat down next to him, but far away enough for Keith not to pull his knife out to murder him.

" _Ooooh man! We missed you guys!! We were so worried!!"_

 _Hunk._ Who sounded like he was crying...

"We know, but I hope you know Sendak an is still after us, cause we need a pick up, and fast." Pidge spoke with just the slightest tremor of fear in her voice. No one could blame her at this point, yeah this situation must've been terrifying...and Shiro was out for the most of it.

" _Ok, and does Number 1 need a pod?"_

 _"_ No." Was Shiro's imediate answer. There was still a battle to be fought, and he wasn't going to be out of commision this time.

" _Yes_." Keith countered, yet again glaring at his brother who just _loved_ to refuse help when he needed it. Keith wasn't having his shit right now.

" _Wait, what's wrong with Shiro?"_

 _"_ We'll tell you later, Lance. Can you have a pod prepared?" Keith interjected.

" _Will do! Now, shall we discuss our plan to get to you all? We need a specific point to meet at."_ Coran instructed.

"Yes, we shall discuss our plan." Keith answered. 

They were going home, after a long journey of troubles and surprises they were finally going to get of this blasted planet Killio. Where the bad color schemes, and killer monkeys will be no more. Man did they all hate this planet, and never want to come across it again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! :3. Stay tunned for the next chapter!! I want to thank you all again for still reading this, leave feedback, I love to hear from you all!!


	7. May The Games Begin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle for freedom begins.
> 
> ::I tagged it as "Graphic depictions of violence" for a reason.::

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! But I'll be dead by the middle of next year so, I'll try and post as much as I can. Yes, I'm going to die. No worries!  
> Oh, and kudos to my friend Leo who helped me with ideas for the 'later scenes' in this chapter. :) 
> 
> Hope you enjoy this one.

Things were rather quiet on the ship. Ever since the paladins got away with the Grepen Lion. Sendak was not pleased with hearing about that. A single living Galran soldier and several sentries do their best to somehow track down the Castle of Lions. The control room's only sounds were the beeping of wary fingers typing away, all artificial but one pair of hands.

The one living soldier was about to take a break from all of this typing that had caused his fingers to start cramping, until he finally managed to pick up a signal.

Not just a signal...

He managed to intercept a transmission enimating from an unknown location. He opened the signal to listen in. Just in case it was important, he started to recorded it for good messure.

" _-Where are we going to meet, Number 3?"_

_"Mountain. Did you guys see it as you flew over?"_

_"Oh yeah! Do you mean the one that's shaped like a giant upside down ice-cream cone?? Oooo, now I want ice-cream."_

_"Haha, yes that's the one, Hunk."_

_"Lexion, you remember the way to the mountain? I'm guessing you know where it is."_

_"Yes, I do. But it will take us a while to get there, Pidge."_

_"Wait, who is this Lexion guy??"_

_"Lance, he's a friend."_

_"I WASN'T ASKING YOU, MULLET. I WAS ASKING SHIRO!!"_

_"Lance, we'll discuss it later, right now we need to meet you guys at the mountain, you can come pick us up."_

_"Ok, dad..."_

_"What was that?"_

_"Nothing!"_

The living soldier scoffed in disgust as he turned off the interception, and recording. He then turned to the sentries that were positioned some distance away from the main console.

"Contact Commander Sendak, we've got some info he'll love to have..."

* * *

"Sir, we've got an incoming message." A Galran soldier cautiously move up next to Sendak and held up a little square device used for communications.

"Answer it." Sendak growled. He was anything but happy, first Champion and his little paladin friends get away, next Lexion has sided with Voltron and ensurred Champion lived, and now the Green Lion has been taken right from his ship.

" _Sire, I have some very pleasing news that is sure to lift your spirits."_

Sendak took the communicater out of his soldier's hand with enough force the soldier flinched back. His troupe continued forward as he spoke into the small handheld device.

"What is it." Sendak dryly replied. No sign of any other emotion on his face but a scowl. All he wanted to do, was capture the paladins and turn them into Zarkon. Then have a one-on-one match with Champion, he will not loose to him again.

" _I have intercepted a communication from the Castle to the paladins, they are planning to pick them up at a specific location."_

Sendak's angry scowl morphed into a vicious smile with all of his white pointy teeth. The paladins won't escape him, or his troupes this time...

"Where is this location." Sendak stopped in his tracks, and his troupe did the same. He put an arrogant prosthetic hand on his hip as he awaited his answer.

" _The mountain you and another troupe were at not too long ago."_

Sendak's mind was rushing with pleased thoughts, he can catch the paladins off guard, and take them down once and for all. He couldn't help but let out a laugh of pride and and pure evilness.

"Thank you for this information, you shall hear from me soon." Sendak couldn't stop smiling as he waited for his soldier's consent.

" _Yes, sir."_

Sendak turned off the communicater, and turned around to face his troupe. They all turned to face him, and awaited his orders. The sentries had their guns pointed towards the ground, no longer in position to fight.

"We are to intercept the paladins at the mountain we were just at, that is where they planned to be picked up by their comrads. We move now to get there before they do. Understood?" Sendak explained, he attempted to go through his explanation as fast as he could, he just wanted to get moving now.

"Yes, sire." Sendak got several nods from the sentries, and verbal responses from his lovong soldiers.

"Good, then let's go meet our future prisoners..." Sendak snarled, as he started in the direction of the mountain. His heart was pounding, and he could barely contain his excitement, he had the opportunity to take the paladins, and that was exactly what he was going to do.

* * *

Shiro smiled up at the dark milky blue sky, with beautiful twinkling stars. Some were big, and some were small. He thought one of them looked like it formed a lion. He was glad most of the dizziness wore off and he was able to walk on his own. Keith was beside him, while Lexion and Pidge led the way infront of them.

According to Coran, Killio's sun was going to rise soon, and said they should be there to pick them up by mid-day. Meaning Hunk and Lance are coming in the Yellow Lion. 

The Yellow Lion would most likely be best to withstand a shot if Sendak's cruiser decided to attack them. He had this feeling that someone was watching him...he looked down from the sky to see Keith looking at him.

"Something wrong?" Shiro asked, a frown adapting onto his face.

"No, I was just making sure you wouldn't fall over again." Keith concluded, shaking his head with just a small hint of a smile on his lips. That made Shiro snort and give a playful smile.

"You worry too much." Shiro exclaimed, as he bumped their shoulders together.

"How could I not?! I'm pretty sure we all know you have the absolute worst of luck! And, a younger brother has to look out for his older brother." Keith countered, crossing his arms and glaring at Shiro.

"No, we look out for eachother." Shiro glared back, mimicking Keith's pose. They continued to stare at eachother before Shiro decided to stick out his bottom lip implieing he was pouting. Causing Keith to laugh.

Shiro smiled, but something caught his attention in the corner of his eye, something bright coming straight for them. His eyes widened, and it was only instinct to act fast when he pushed Keith out of harm's way. Shiro quickly pulled back, and the shot was only inches away from his face, he could feel the heat coming off of it.

Whirling around to see where it came from, it was a group of 7 sentries and and living soldier found them.

"It's a troupe!" Lexion shouted.

There was no way they were going to outrun the troupe without someone getting shot. Preparing for a fight, Shiro positioned himself into a fighting stance, igniting his Galran arm. Keith seemed to catch on as he pulled put his Mamoran knife, tranforming it. Lexion got out his gun and held his position behind Shiro and Keith.

"You up for this?" Keith whispered, casting Shiro a concerned glance.

"Of course!" Shiro whispered back, offering Keith a reasurring smile.

The troupe held it's stance for a couple more seconeds before the one living soldier gave them a signal to attack. All 7 sentries started shooting, charging forward at once. 

Shiro wouldn't say he liked fighting, but what he did like, was the feeling of adrenaline while fighting. It was nice to get back in action after being out of commision for so long.

Taking advantage of his ignighted prosthetic, Shiro blocked several different shots heading straight for him. The glow of his prosthetic countering the sentries gun shots. In the corner of his eye, he saw Keith dodge some as well, before charging forward with a powerful yell.

Shiro followed after Keith to make sure he didn't get shot, slicing through at least 3 sentries as he continued running. It was all a blur until he realized they were now in a fist-to-fist fight with the one leading soldier, who was fairly powerful. He heard a _click_ and turned around on instinct to see the 2 sentries Keith missed behind them. Just before they fired their guns, they hit the ground just as fast as their artificial hands were poised on triggers.

Shiro quickly looked up, and was shocked to see Lexion gave a thumbs up and a smile. Even Pidge looked a little spooked herself.

_'Seconed time he saved my life on this planet, huh. Maybe he does want to side with Voltron.'_

Lexion's smile was one Shiro gladly returned.

* * *

"You really sure we're not going to run into ANY MORE problems getting Mullet, Pidge, and Shiro back?" Lance wailed, as he slid off his paladin chair until his head and arms were the only things left on it. 

"I'm not positive, but I do belive we have gotten through the rough part of it." Allura responded, unimpressed by Lance's imature behavior. 

"Well for now we can dicuss our strategy!" Coran suggested, pointing his index finger in the air with his classic peppy smile. Though all he got was a confused look from Lance, an pleased look from Allura, and...Hunk looked lost in thought. Most likely worrying about what could go wrong at this moment.

"Why would we need a strategy? Can't we just fly in there and _Pow, pow, pow,_ blast them out?" Lance didn't move from his odd position, but he did have his head lifted to look at the others.

"No, you remember last time you tried that with the Utailias? You were sevearly injured as a result." Allura glared, Lance shrunk into the floor more not knowing she was still upset about that. He guessed Allura could be pretty stubborn sometimes. Lance decided to look over to Hunk for some kind of backup, but he looked like he was about to cry.

"Hunk? Buddy? You alright?" Lance asked, with a cross between a worried and a sad look on his face. He stood up and walked over to Hunk, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"I'm alright, but... Are Shiro, Keith, and Pidge really okay? Like, Shiro doesn't sound good and they all sound so tired. Not to mention we don't know the whole story about this Lexion guy. How did Shiro get hurt in the first place? How did they crash? Why is the Green Lion practically dead? Are they going to tell us all of this?? Are we going to get answers?! ARE WE GOING TO DIE?! WHAT IF-" 

"Woah, buddy, calm down. We're not going to die, and we're going to get answers from them. Allura said we've gotten through the rough part of everything, so, I'm guessing we have no more major problems." Lance hugged his best friend, and he didn't want to be wrong, cause the smile he got from Hunk was worth it.

"We have a problem, actually." Coran said, twisting the ends of his moustache. He sounded oddly cheerful for the current crisis they're in.

Lance groaned and practically sank into the ground while still clinging to Hunk.

"The Castle's sheild is still down, so we're vulnerable to attacks from Sendak's cruiser. Even if you two go down there with the Yellow Lion, you still have a chance to get shot from the second cannon. You saw the result with the Green Lion." Coran explained, his tone now serious.

"So how do we fix that?" Lance asked, slowely standing up, no longer clinging to Hunk. 

"We can't! It's a risk we will have to take!" Coran chuckled, placing his hands on his hips. 

Both Hunk and Lance shared uneasy looks.

* * *

"That was dangerous! I can't belive you did that." Keith exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air above his head. Killio's sun was starting to rise, the sky wasn't as dark anymore. 

"I can take a hit to the face, Keith." Shiro countered, crossing his arms in a manner that meant trouble. He silently ignored how his left cheek throbed, most likely going to become a bruise later. Keith glared back at him until letting out a low groan in the back of his throat.

"I was fine on my own! So what if I get a couple bruises, I have some already! I don't want you out again!" Keith yelled back, not wanting to loose this argument.

"Keith, it's just a bruise. I'll be fine." Shiro tried a different approach with this, cause they were still standing infornt of the tree with the unconscious living soldier tied to it. If they ever wanted the chance to get back to the Castle as soon as possible, they needed to get moving. 

"...FINE!! Let's just go." Keith let off, before turning the other way and walking. Pidge and Lexion exchanged shocked looks.

"Was that supposed to happen...?" Lexion whispered to Pidge as they began to follow after an angry Keith and a pretty upset looking Shiro.

"No..." Pidge whispered back, the two awkwardly said nothing for at least an hour. It was only silence and the sound of distant animals, they were almost to the mountain. 

"WAHHHH!!! IT'S THAT STUPID PURPLE MONKEY!!!" Pidge yelled, when the purple monkey with dried blood on it's tail jumped out from the bushes infront of her. Lexion seemed spooked as he fumbled with his gun trying to take it off of his belt.

He dropped it.

The monkey picked it up.

And pointed it at Lexion.

"I'm sure it doesn't know how to use that thing-" Lexion said, before being interrupted by what he thought was a warning shot right infront of his feet.

"It knows how to use a gun..." Keith stared in dismay, how and why does a killer monkey know it's way with a _gun._

Shiro was shocked by this too, but this thing was a definite threat. One he needed to dispose of before someone else gets hurt. His eyes visibly darkened when he stepped foward carefully, and silently ignighted his Galran prosthetic while approaching the monkey from behind. As soon as he was close enough, he lunged for it. 

For the _kill._

Impaling the thing in it's head. Yes, he did feel a bit guilty, but one, they need to keep moving, two, that was the same monkey that tried to _strangle_ him not too long ago. Pulling his hand away, it was covered in _green_ blood. Shiro shook his hand in disgust removing the blood. He wondered why it was so silent, so he looked up to see everyone staring at him, with their month's agape.

"You just..." Keith started, bringing up his hand to point.

"Murdered? Wouldn't be the first time." Shiro sighed, with a smile that carried far too many reasons to evaluate. It was true after all, it _wasn't_ his first time murdering. In his defence, it was for a good cause at least, not out of the blue like some maniac.

"I've seen some of your Arena fights, but not a kill this close up." Lexion beamed, earning a scowl from Keith. Pidge averted Lexion's eyes and kept her own to her feet. Lexion may have realized he hit a sensitive subject, or an akward one. He still has a lot to learn about the paladins.

Shiro started to lead the way this time, and hopefully get to the mountain without anymore interruptions. He would love a bath right about now, and for his neck to be healed too. He was also guessing Black is still pretty worried. Maybe a mental message to enssure her everyone is alright.

_'Black?'_

**_My paladin, is everything alright?_ **

_'Yes, we're heading home soon.'_

**_Good, I'm not letting you go next time._ **

_'Why not?'_

**_I do not want to endure such anxiety again._ **

_'What if it's really important, though?'_

**_That is something for us to dicuss. Hopefully in the near future._**

_'Okay, but I'm not sure Allura would be too happy about it.'_

**_There might be an acception, but I never liked these missions of yours._ **

_'I know, I'm always weary myself. They turn out fine in the end, so we have that at least._

**_Keith is asking you if your alright._ **

_'Oh.'_

Shiro snapped out of the daze to see Keith waving a hand in his face. Sending a quick mental thanks to Black.

"Are you alright?" Keith asked, once he noticed Shiro came back to himself. 

"I'm okay, just talking to Black. I guess I got a little distracted." Shiro said, sheepishly scratching the back of his head. When he saw Keith's look of _'Yeeeeah.... **no**_.' It was definitly longer than a minute or two.

"Well, we're at the mountain already. You spaced out the entire way. Plus it's like, 10:37 A.M. in Earth time. The others will be here soon." Keith responded, pointing to the mountain ahead of them with a hint of a smile on his face.

"Oh. So that's what that mountain looks like when I'm not delierious..." Shiro squinted at the mountain, not remembering it only being one formation. It was definitly _not_ a perfect looking cone shape before.

"Oh that's right! You've never really seen the mountain yet." Pidge exclaimed.

* * *

"Sire, it's been 2 Vargas. Where are the paladins?" A soldier whispered, positioned right next to Sendak along with the others. All fingers ready to pull the trigger on guns made to kill. This was getting ridiculous, what if the paladins don't even show up? 

"If they don't show up, I'll have all of your heads." Sendak snapped back, as if he read his mind. All soldiers visibly flinched, and shuddered. Only to find that they have been saved when the red paladin walked into the clearing. Followed by Lexion, the green paladin and-

Sendak growled and scraped his claws against the rock he was standing behind when he saw Champion walk out too. He shouldn't have lived, but he himself would love to have the honer to do so. 

"Sire, should we open fire?" 

"No. I want to handle this myself." 

All he had to do now was wait for an opening. Exploiting one of their many weaknesses, the green paladin would be an easy first kill if he should be able to catch them off guard. Sendak's seering eyes didn't leave the green paladin. It was just a split tic before he _lunged_ with a yell.

It was all a blur until he realized he was on the floor coughing just as fast. Lexion had delivered a powerful kick straight to his stomach, knocking the wind right out of him. Sendak stood up with a dark grin on his face, accompanied by a small chuckle.

"Hello, traitor."

"I'm no traitor if I chose the right side." Lexion countered, bringing his gun out. The paladins lined up beside him, Shiro avtivating his Galran arm, and Keith with his Mamoran blade. Pidge stood behind them. Lexion worried for Pidge as she was unarmed, but the least he could do was give her his knife. He didn't miss when she went pale and realized Shiro's blood was dried onto it. He threw her an apologetic smile, Pidge responded with a weary smile of her own.

Sendak symboled his troupe to come out from behind the trees. His troupe consited of 16 sentries, and 3 living soldiers. 

The sentrie's metal bodies reflected the sun's light, as they marched foward. The sun rising into the sky caused it to be a beautiful pink color. They reached Sendak, and stood behind him in a perfect line, guns at the ready if needed. His living soldiers standing with them.

"Keith, stick with Pidge. Lexion?" Shiro said in a low voice, glancing at Lexion for conformation. 

"It'd be an honer, Shiro." Lexion responded, with a wide smirk on his face. As if this was all timed, Sendak sent his senties out to attack first, on instinct Keith and Pidge went to destroy them. The living soldiers went straight for Lexion and Shiro, leaving Sendak a smiling, arrogant moran. 

All it took to take down the first soldier was a solid hit to the head with Shiro's prosthetic, leaving blood on it. The second and third weren't as easy to take out as the first soldier. Lexion got a shot to one of their heads, and watched as blood splattered onto the ground when the soldier fell face first. It wasn't exactly the ideal sight, but deep down it was pleasing to see.

Shiro was keeping up with Lexion pretty well, and saw just how strong he was. He might not be the most stratigic person in the universe, but man did he have a powerful kick. In which Shiro himself knows exactly how that feels to the head. He saw something in the corner of his eye coming at him with ramming speed.

_'Sendak.'_

Not being able to move out of the way fast enough, Shiro put both of his arms up and held his best defence position. He grunted on impact and skidded backwards about 4 feet. Sendak wasted no time to attack, and tried to deliver a punch to Shiro's face. In which he countered with his fists up.

"Your reaction time is fast, I'll give you that." Sendak remarked, trying to overpower Shiro, who wasn't going down easy at all.

"Thanks." Shiro responded, before spinning on his heel to force Sendak's weight forward, causing him to stumble with his balance. With a clear opening, he used his prosthetic to cut down Sendak's unprotected back. The heat of his prosthetic allowed his armour to melt, and granted access to his flesh. Blood trailed down his back and traces of it were on Shiro's hand, it felt all too familier to him.

Sendak howeled in pain, but was fast enough to come back at Shiro with a hit that sent him _flying_ backwards. He yelled, and hit Keith in the back causing him to fall with an ' _oomph' ._

Shiro jumped back up to his feet while assisting Keith back up to his own.

"Are you okay? You came out of no where!" Keith exclaimed, casting a quick glance to where Pidge was still fighting. Even with just a small knofe she was still pretty good on the battlefield.

"I'm alright, but I don't know how long we can keep this up." Shiro responded, slicing through sentries back to back with Keith. 

"The others should be here any moment now, so we don't have to fight for much longer." Keith said, taking the time to look up at the sky. Killio's sun was just about in the middle of the sky. Shiro was paying attention to Lexion, who was now in a fist fight with Sendak.

"You can't take me on, your weak." Sendak growled, delivering a hefty punch to Lexion's chest, knocking the wind right out of him. Lexion staggered back and coughed, while defending himself from another blow.

"I'm not weak!" Lexion countered, it came out more as a yell than what he had hoped. He charged foward and punched Sendak in the face, giving him a split lip that dropped blood.

"You..." Sendak paused, before rage and fire was the only thing eminating from him. "YOUR DEAD TO ME!" Sendak came at Lexion with whatever he had, his form wasn't clumsy or off track. In fact, it was better than before.

"Guys! Look!" Pidge called out, pointing to the sky to see the Yellow Lion landing. That bought smiles to all of their faces except for Sendak's. He had to watch all of this happen, as he failed to capture the paladins _again_.

As soon as Yellow landed, Lance ran out.

"C'mon! We gotta go now!" 

Everyone stopped what they were doing and made a straight beeline for the Yellow Lion, once everyone was in they were gone.

"It was like a war down there, what did you guys do!?" Was the first thing Lance had said. Though nobody responded because they were still out of breath from running so fast.

"We...were ambushed." Lexion managed.

"I'm so glad we finally have you guys back!" Hunk cried from the front. Soon the Yellow Lion was filled with happy cheers, and a family again.

"We're going home." Shiro said with nothing short of a smile on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!! Please leave me feedback, I love hearing from you guys, one more chapter to go!! Thank you again for all of your support, you'll see a lot more stuff from me soon.
> 
> P.S. I accidently pressed the post button, so it was a bit rushed at the end. I'm sorry.


	8. End The Trauma

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's finally over.
> 
> ::This chapter has some art I did!!::

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are! The last chapter, I really hope you enjoy! I'm really sorry about all of the delays, but I did some art for this chapter. Tell me how you think I did with it please! ^^ 🖤❤💙💛💚

The trip back to the Castle was definitely one to remember.

Just the sheer feeling of relief, and to finally be out of danger was...it was _wonderful._ Others would describe it as coming into your warm house after playing in the snow during winter, or even something as simple as taking a bath. All of these things and far more are all wonderful.

Though, imagine getting shot down in a magic flying, sentiment lion, with an injured friend. Not to forget there are bad guys following you- no, _hunting_ you while your standard on an unknown alien planet, with no way to contact your friends who are several galaxies away.

Not exactly the most pleasent thing in the universe...

"Woah, you are a lot bigger than Haxus was..." Lance stood infront of Lexion who towered over him with his eyebrow raised as Lance's eyes were as wide as flying saucers.

"Should I be taking that as a compliment?" Lexion looked over to Shiro who was seated up against the inner walls of Yellow, his tired eyes met Lexion's and he simply smiled.

"I'm not so sure." Shiro shook his head with a small chuckle, Keith was seated next to him he was awfully close but it was just his paranoied worrying getting the best of him. Shiro didn't blame him though, he blamed none of them for worrying so much about him. He does tend to get into much more trouble than he should...

"How the heck did you guys find us?" Pidge asked, she seemed to be a little protective of her left foot Shiro noticed this but he didn't know why...

"Coran and I built this really cool machine that amplied Allura's powers to track you guys down, and it's so good to here your voices again in person!" Hunk said from the front, he was definetly at the brink of tears now. He was also flying back to the Castle at impeccable speed, they were entering his hanger already!

"It's good to see you guys again too." Keith replied, nothing short of smile on his face. He turned to look at Shiro with a small glare though he didn't look mad, just concerned.

"You, are going into a pod. So don't even try to fight it." Keith whispered, having known that Shiro when it was possible, had always refused the pods. He understood why, and was sympathetic about it. When it came to injuries, he was always the first one to usher Shiro into the med-bay.

"I wasn't going to, promise." Shiro smiled and shaked both his hands infront of him. Keith looked pleased with that as he let his smile return back onto his face. The Yellow Lion shook as Hunk bought her down to land in her hanger. They had gotten back to the Castle so fast Allura and Coran didn't even have any time to meet then Yellow's hanger. Thus bringing the result of going to the Bridge to meet them instead. The walk to the Bridge felt way too short as it normally took about 5 doboshes to get there, though neither of them knew why it seemed to take only 1 dobosh.

Lexion on the other hand, was enjoying his first walk down the long elegant halls of the Castle of Lions.   
  
His eyes did their best to trace over every detail and notice how the soft Altean blue was far more pleasant than the sinister Galran purple he's used to seeing. The Castle halls were lined in these crystals that glowed, despite there not being much of these lights, the halls were very bright.

Lexion wasn't exactly sure how the paladins knew their way around this place, it was huge! It had more halls then he could count, and he was wondering how many times they get lost around here...

Though his awe was paused as they all came to the end off the hall, seeing big doors that belonged to the Bridge. Lexion couldn't keep himself from getting excited. Sendak has step foot in here, but never told anyone anything from being ashamed that the mission failed. He paused in his thoughts when the doors started to open, and he was met with such a beautifully designed Bridge!

"By Altea's seven moons, you had us all worried sick!!" Allura was rhe fist one to speak, as her head whirled around when she heard the Bridge doors open. Allura and Coran rushed over to meet them at the doors, exchanging lots of hugs and ' _I missed you'_ s.

"So this is Lexion." Allura stopped, her expression darkened as she stood a good distance away from Lexion.

"Yes, it is an honour to meet you Princess Allura. Though I wish it was on better terms." Lexion offered a smile and a polite bow towards Allura who seemed at bit surprised at his respect.

"Well, you certainly have some explaining to do but I heard Shiro has been injured and needs a pod?" Allura acknowledged, glancing over to Shiro who looked extremely exhausted. She gasped when she saw his neck though, probably seeing the series of cuts and punctures. 

"Oh goodness, what happened?!" 

"That was my fault..." Lexion sheepishly raised his hand with such a perfect smile to match.

" _What..._ " Allura's expression darkened into one the paladins have never seen before. She slowly turned her head to look at Pidge and Keith. Pidge sighed, and began explaining Keith nodding his head along. Coran seemed to have walked over as well standing next to Allura with a hand twisting the ends of his moustache.

Lexion on the other hand had snuck away from the group to stare out the Bridge's big windows full of beautiful twinkling stars. Shiro noticed this, and quietly snuck away to stand beside him.

"I could stare at the stars for hours, and never get tired of seeing them. Even living in Space now." Shiro started, he noted how he may sound a bit crazy but it seemed needed in this moment.

"Yes, but Shiro, I wanted to apologize for what I have done to you and the pain I have caused your paladins." Lexion looked down at Shiro, the apology was sincere in his eyes and words. 

"Lexion, it's okay. In the end you helped us, I trust you and I'm sure the others will come around." Shiro met his gaze with a warm smile and tired eyes, Lexion only smiled back at him in response. Boy, was he glad he didn't end up killing this guy, and the fact that he ended up with the right people.

"Number 1, I believe it's time we get you into a pod." Coran called out, Shiro and Lexion turning around to look at him. The moment didn't last long, but neither one of them can deny it happened. Coran had walked over to Shiro and latched onto his wrist leading him out the Bridge doors very closely followed by Keith. With one last smile tawords Lexion, Shiro was out into the Castle halls heading straight to med-bay.

Shiro didn't want to believe it, but he thinks he's reached the med-bay in record time. What was the rush? He was okay enough to walk at a normal pace. But he didn't argue otherwise and changed into the cryo suit and stepped into a pod, watching as the chill set over his shoulders and the door began to close.

Followed by his eyes.

* * *

The first thing Shiro was aware of was the familiar chill of the pods vanishing. Then he was awake, stumbling out of the pod with Keith there in seconds to help him steady back onto his feet.

"Thanks." Shiro smiled at Keith, who gladly smiled back while offering a pat to Shiro's shoulder.

"Not meaning to rush you Shiro, but if you could please get changed and meet us in the dinning hall? There is a lot of this story that I have yet to hear from your point of veiw." Allura softly explained, she whore a sympathetic but determined smile on her face. Shiro guessed she knows about the whole getting poinsoned thing...

He nodded his head with an easy smile. Allura nodded her head back and her and Coran took their leave. 

"Is everyone else okay?" Shiro asked, letting his smile falter as he looked to his brother.

"Yes, now stop worrying and go get changed. You do that too much." Keith chuckled, jabbing Shiro in the arm with his elbow.

"Your telling me not to worry? Haha, please. Not going to happen." Shiro chuckled back, taking his leave before Keith could make a further comment other than his pouty expression. He walked out into the hall and made his way to his room, finding his street clothes set out on his bed. Shiro smiled as he looked at himself in the mirror after changing. He'll admit he looks much better than he did before, completely ignoring the question of how long was he in the pod for?

Shiro smiled to himself in the mirror and made his way out his room and over to the dinning hall.

The walk there was nice, he stuffed his hands in his pockets and smiled to himself. Man, it was really good to finally be home. He starts thinking of what he would say to Allura, knowing he really doesn't have much to go on or tell her.

He sighed and stared up at the Castle's ceiling, his feet already knowing where to go and turn. Looking up, he feels so small. Then again, is he is small compared to the entire universe. It's amazing, how far into Space they've come.

But it's just as terrifying.

To think that Shiro has basically adopted 4 kids in Space, fighting a race of aliens that had kidnapped him and kept him in a prison for a year, of which he remembers more of them he lets on to the paladins. He doesn't like keeping secrets, really, but these were good secrets ones he knows he needs to keep to himself.

Shiro only snapped out of his gaze when he ran into the dinning hall doors, rubbing at his nose before opening it. 

"What did you do, run into the door?" Allura was the first one to ask, she was seated next to Coran and across from Lexion. Which to Shiro's surprise Keith was sitting next to him, Pidge, was next to Keith who seemed to be having a conversation with Hunk. Lance was... Eating something...

"Actually yes." Shiro responded with a sheepish smile, there seemed to be a spot right in between Keith and Lexion, which he gladly took his place there. Allura laughed at his response, and so did the others except for Keith who put an experimental hand to his forehead.

_Oh boy..._

"Keith-"

"Nope, don't tell me anything. I am your younger brother yet I seem like the older one." Keith interrupted, narrowing his eyes at Shiro who rolled his eyes with a smile on his face.

"Oh! Shiro I have something for you." Hunk beamed, jumping to his feet and dashing into the kitchen. Shiro tilted his head to the side as he saw Hunk rush back out of the kitchen with a cup and a spoon in his hands. He set down the cup and spoon and was nearly bouncing on his heels with a wide smile on his face.

Shiro took the cup into his hands and looked at it with wid eyes, then back to Hunk.

"Ice cream?" 

"Yeah! Now try it!" Hunk nodded, and then gestired to Shiro's cup as he gladly took in a big spoonful in his mouth. It had a creamy vanilla taste that melted in his mouth, it wasn't too cold or not cold enough it was delicious!

"Hunk, you are amazing." Shiro said, in between another big spoonful of this dreamy vanilla. It had an odd blue tint to it, but he didn't care at all. First milkshakes, now ice cream in Space?! Simply amazing!!

"Awe, thanks!" Hunk blushed a little, looking away from Shiro, then heading back to his spot across from Pidge and next to Lance, who was enjoying his own cup of ice cream. Shiro wouldn't be surprised if it was his 3rd cup...

"Okay, Shiro. What is your side of the story, starting at the knife to your throat." Allura started, Shiro not missing the quick dark glance over to Lexion. So she didn't trust him, Shiro understood that but she came to understand Keith's Galran lineage so she can certainly accpet Lexion in the end as well.

"Well, to get away I tripped him though the knife was too close to my neck and I ended up getting cut. I ran over to help out Keith and Pidge, and it was a bit of a blur until I passed out in the Green Lion. Which happened not long after we took off. I woke up apparently right after we crashed down on Killio, then...most of it's all a blur except for a couple of feelings I remember... It's all pretty scrambled and messed up in my head, but that's before I got the antidote for the poison. Afterwards I was fine, other than some dizziness as a side effect." Shiro finished, looking at Keith with his last sentence with a smirk on his face, Keith pouted and seemed to sink down into his chair trying to hide the fact that, that part was no doubt his fault.

"That certainly clears things up. But Lexion, I'm finding it hard to understand exactly why you gave Shiro the antidote. From what you all told me, he was on the brink of death." Allura asked, her expression unreadable but understanding in a way while also being confused.

"Really? It got that far?" Shiro questioned, he was baffled as he looked up to Lexion with eyes as wide as flying saucers.

"Yes, it did Shiro." Lexion responded, he looked really guilty and soleom as he met Shiro's eyes with a side glance. "My motive to serve Zarkon was one forged by living under his command. Trained since child hood, I took the job when Haxus was reported dead. I admit I did many bad things, but I came to realize what I had done and been doing was wrong. Therefore I attepmted to make it up by assuring Shiro lives." Lexion explained, looking Allura straight in her eyes with respect before looking back down to Shiro with a small smile on his face. 

"I also admit that I am very pleased with my decision with not killing him." Lexion finished of his explanation with a big genuine smile causing everyone to smile, yes even Keith was smiling.

"Well I'm glad you think you made the right choice, because I'm pretty sure we'd be lost without him." Allura smiled, it was full of sincerity and awknowledgment. 

"But now that we have this worked out, what are we going to do with you? You could be useful around the Castle but, I believe you would be needed elsewhere." Allura's continued words were full of kindness despite her choice being a bit rash. The team stayed silent for a second, thinking of the places Lexion could be useful now that this is all over.

"We could send him to the Blade of Marmora." Keith suggested, it was a really good one at that as well.

"That's a wonderful idea, number 3!" Coran beamed, clapping his hands together for two short claps. He looked to Allura for some sort of approval, and she herself seemed to beam at the answer as well.

"Yes! That is a very good idea Keith, Lexion, you have my permission to stay on the Castle until we get you to headquarters." Allura smiled and nodded towards Lexion who smiled and nodded his head in the same gesture.

* * *

It's been a couple of quintents since the decision of taking Lexion to the Blade of Mamora.

They were almost there having received a yes from Kolivan about Lexion. He had said it was always nice to meet new members with a kind smile. Lexion himself had joined the paladins for training, and has experienced what it feels like to enjoy Hunk's godly cooking.

But right now, they had training to do. 

The first couple of days was left off because Lance had a stomach issue in result of eating a bit too much of Hunk's ice cream...

So this was the first day Lexion got to join the paladins in training. Shiro's armour had been fully repaired as the collar was damaged before, well, broken as they say. 

"Okay guys, we're going to be brushing up our skills as a team cause I think the incident with Killio has done some damage." Shiro explained, the paladins amd Lexion standing across from him as he continued to explain the training session. "So, the gladiator will be set to a level 9 be careful. Normally we'd do a level 6 but I think we're ready for a much tougher oppent don't you think?" Shiro was smiling, even though the looks of terror on the others faces excpet for Lexion who had a smile on his face.

"Why Shiro. WHY!!!!!" Lance wailed, having being better but this session was making him want to be sick again.

Shiro just shrugged and answered with, "Well, get into position. Start training session." He called out to the ceiling, taking steps back to be lined up with the team preparing by igniting his prosthetic arm. The others pulling out their bayards whule Lexion just had his fists to work with, but with his strength and muscle mass Shiro figured he'd be fine.

The gladiator jumped down from the ceiling amd immediately started charging for Pidge, with her speed and agility she was able to dodge it's attack with ease. Keith rounded up behind it with his sword and with a yell he sliced down, but the gladiator was quick to block with it's staff. Keith tried his best to over power it, but it kicked him in the stomach sending him a couple feet away gasping for breath as the air was knocked right out of his chest.

It dashed straight for Hunk next, who seemed to be somewhat prepared for it's attack. He did his best to shoot it with precise shots but missed, one of his shots almost his Pidge but she bought up her sheild just in time to protect herself. The gladiator was sprinting at Hunk most likely looking to ram him, but Lance shot it in it's shoulder causing it to loose balance and crash right into the wall while Hunk dived out of the way. 

"Haha, yeah! Nice one Lance!" Shiro called out, unfortunately believing that the gladiator was broken and out for the count. He approached it seeing sparking wires, and come to narrowing his eyes being so close to it. Quietly ignoring the big dent in the wall... "I think it's broken." Shiro looked back at his team with a shrug of his shoulders seeing their expressions go from calm to panic.

"SHIRO IT'S STILL ALIVE!!!" Pidge yelled back frantically pointing to the gladiator that was starting to stand back onto it's artificial feet. Shiro's head whipped to look behind him to see the gladiator fully up and standing again. 

"Shit."

Was all Shiro said before dodging the slice from the gladiator's staff with a safety roll back onto his feet. The gladiator was too fast as it managed to hit Shiro in his side thus causing him to be sent spiraling trying to regain his balance. Unfortunately he wasn't able to ending up on the floor so dizzy he couldn't get back up to his feet as the gladiator charged for him. Fortunately, Lexion just so happened to be at the right place at the right time and kicked the gladiator hard enough for it to end up a heap on the floor. 

_Now_ it was dead.

The dizziness finally stopped enough for Shiro to be able to see properly as he saw Lexion making sure the robot was dead before offering Shiro a hand up with a smile. Shiro gladly took his hand and pulled himself up to his own feet with a smile.

"Welp, I think it's safe to say we're never going to do this again." Shiro sheepishly chuckled rubbing at the back of his head. The others all nodded in a silent agreement with eachother.

Glad that's settled.

* * *

Today was the day that Lexion leaves the Castle of Lions. As they had finally reached headquarters, he didn't have much to pack but Hunk did cook some extra food for him just because they had all had the chance to become friends with Lexion.

He had a small bag on his back, leaving the Castle with a smile and to Shiro's surprise hugs of goodbyes. In the end they all settled for one big group hug in the end.

"I'm going to miss you all, never will I ever regret my decision to side with you." That was the last thing Lexion said before looking back to Kolivan who wore a smile and nodded his head in thanks. The others went back into the Castle, and Lexion watched as it took of with a proud smile on his face.

"Until we meet again Voltron."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed Poisoned Fury, if your interested, come check me out! If you don't see anything you'd like to read, let me know and I'll write something for you! 
> 
> Comments and kudos are always greatly appreciated, so thank you if you do. And a big thank you for staying with this until the end! Poisoned Fury will always have a very special place in my heart. ❤
> 
> Also, if you want to contact me you can find my email on my profile page. All people are welcome to pop in and say hi! I love meeting new people and making friends! Love you guys!  
> 🖤❤💙💛💚


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